When I Hear That A Man Is

The First Ideas Of Religion Arose, Not From Contemplation Of The Works Of Nature, But From A Concern With Regard To The Events Of Life.

The Greatest Crimes Have Been Found, In Many Instances, To Be Compatible With A Superstitious Piety And Devotion; Hence It Is Justly Regarded As Unsafe To Draw Any Inference In Favor Of A Man's Morals, From The Fervor Or Strictness Of His Religious Exercises, Even Though He Himself Believe Them Sincere.

Nothing Can Be More Real, Or Concern Us More, Than Our Own Sentiments Of Pleasure And Uneasiness; And If These Be Favourable To Virtue And Unfavourable To Vice, No More Can Be Requisite To The Regulation Of Our Conduct And Behavior.

Nothing Is So Improving To The Temper As The Study Of The Beauties Either Of Poetry, Eloquence, Music, Or Painting.

There Is An Universal Tendency Among Mankind To Conceive All Beings Like Themselves, And To Transfer To Every Object, Those Qualities, With Which They Are Familiarly Acquainted, And Of Which They Are Intimately Conscious. We Find Human Faces In The Moon, Armies In The Clouds; And By A Natural Propensity, If Not Corrected By Experience And Reflection, Ascribe Malice Or Good-will To Every Thing, That Hurts Or Pleases Us.