Design must be proved before a designer can be inferred.

The advocates of literal interpretation have been the most efficacious enemies of those doctrines whose nature they profess to venerate.

The conceptions which any nation or individual entertains of the God of its popular worship may be inferred from their own actions and opinions, which are the subjects of their approbation among their fellow-men.

Most wretched men Are cradled into poetry by wrong: They learn in suffering what they teach in song.

I love all waste and solitary places.

The pleasure that is in sorrow is sweeter than the pleasure of pleasure itself.

The nature of a narrow and malevolent spirit is so essentially incompatible with happiness as to render it inaccessible to the influences of the benignant God.