They are a defense of the Jansenists, and an attack on the Jesuits . He then commented on the quotations, with devastating effect. Pascal regarded the court of Louis XIV as hopelessly corrupt and irreligious, and regarded the Jesuits' willingness to form what amounted to an alliance with that court as little short of a pact with Satan. Ultimately, the Jansenists were formally condemned by the Pope, but not without complications. They got the Pope to agree.
Editors differ as to what order they ought to be printed in.
They contain, not an argument to persuade a non-Christian to accept Christ as Lord, but scribbled notes in preparation for the formulation of such an argument. How Pascal would have organized it, and how filled in the gaps, must remain a matter of conjecture. A few of the better-known lines may suggest the flavor. I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends left in the world. Man is but a reed, the weakest thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.