William Paley

Also known as Venerable William Paley

Family

Also known as Venerable William Paley

Notable quotes

“The infidelity of the Gentile world, and that more especially of men of rank and learning in it, is resolved into a principle which, in my judgment, will account for the inefficacy of any argument, or any evidence whatever, viz. contempt prior to examination.”
— A View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794).
“God, when he created the human species, wished their happiness; and made for them the provision which he has made, with that view, and for that purpose.”
— Vol. I, Book II, Ch. V
“Wanton, and, what is worse, studied cruelty to brutes, is certainly wrong.”
— Vol. I, Book II, Ch. XI
“[E]lections to the supreme power having upon some occasions produced the most destructive contentions, many states would take refuge from a return of the same calamities, in a rule of succession; and no rule presents itself so obvious, certain, and intelligible, as consanguinity of birth.”
— Vol. II, Book VI, Ch. I
“Wherefore rejecting the intervention of a compact, as unfounded in its principle, and dangerous in the application, we assign for the only ground of the subjects' obligation, THE WILL OF GOD AS COLLECTED FROM EXPEDIENCY.”
— Vol. II, Book VI, Ch. III

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.