A little philosophy makes a man an Atheist: a great deal converts him to religion

Apart from the representational content of an idea there is another component: its force and vivacity, its impetus.

Habit may lead us to belief and expectation but not to the knowledge, and still less to the understanding, of lawful relations.

It is a great mortification to the vanity of man, that his utmost art and industry can never equal the meanest of nature's productions, either for beauty or value. Art is only the under-workman, and is employed to give a few strokes of embellishment to those pieces, which come from the hand of the master.

From causes which appear similar, we expect similar effects. This is the sum total of all our experimental conclusions.

If the religious spirit be ever mentioned in any historical narration, we are sure to meet afterwards with a detail of the miseries which attend it. And no period of time can be happier or more prosperous, than those in which it is never regarded or heard of.

Where is the reward of virtue? and what recompense has nature provided for such important sacrifices as those of life and fortune, which we must often make to it? O sons of earth! Are ye ignorant of the value of this celestial mistress? And do ye meanly inquire for her portion, when ye observe her genuine beauty?