The contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created, which calls forth the most intense desires of the soul, and of which it never tires.

Political truth is libel; religious truth, blasphemy.

Contemplation makes a rare turkey cock of him. How he jets under his advanced plumes!

When holy and devout religious men Are at their beads, 'tis much to draw them thence, So sweet is zealous contemplation.

Ecstasy is from the contemplation of things vaster than the individual and imperfectly seen perhaps, by all those that still live.

There are few things in which we deceive ourselves more than in the esteem we profess to entertain for our friends. It is little better than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we think of them as we please, that is, as they please or displease us.