Careful Words

religious (n.)

religious (adj.)

Who God doth late and early pray

More of his grace than gifts to lend;

And entertains the harmless day

With a religious book or friend.

Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639): The Character of a Happy Life.

And storied windows richly dight,

Casting a dim religious light.

John Milton (1608-1674): Il Penseroso. Line 159.

  We must repeat the often repeated saying, that it is unworthy a religious man to view an irreligious one either with alarm or aversion, or with any other feeling than regret and hope and brotherly commiseration.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881): Voltaire. Foreign Review, 1829.