The fierce and partial writers of the times, ascribing all virtue to themselves, and imputing all guilt to their adversaries, have painted the battle of the angels and the demons.

A sentence of death and infamy was often founded on the slight and suspicious evidence of a child or a servant: the guilt [of the defendant] was presumed by the judges [due to the nature of the charge], and paederasty became the crime of those to whom no crime could be imputed.

It has been sagaciously conjectured, that the artful legislator indulged the stubborn prejudices of his countrymen.

But a law, however venerable be the sanction, cannot suddenly transform the temper of the times . . .

The most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence, and describe the condition of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body.

[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.

The frequent repetition of miracles serves to provoke, where it does not subdue, the reason of mankind.