"There are men who think themselves too wise to be religious"
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Richardson is needling a very specific species: the self-certified rationalist who treats religion as a superstition for softer minds. The line works because it doesn’t argue theology; it punctures vanity. “Think themselves” is the blade. Wisdom here isn’t measured, it’s performed. These men aren’t simply unconvinced; they’re invested in the identity of being above belief, and Richardson frames that posture as a kind of credulity of its own.
As a novelist of manners, Richardson understood that “reason” is often a social costume. In early 18th-century Britain, the rise of polite skepticism, Deist argument, and Enlightenment self-confidence didn’t just change what people believed; it changed what it signaled to believe or not believe. Religion could read as provincial or emotionally undisciplined. Richardson’s phrasing suggests that some men don’t leave faith because they’ve outgrown it, but because they’ve turned intelligence into status. The target is less atheism than arrogance: a mind so flattered by its own clarity that it can’t imagine other forms of knowing - moral, communal, existential.
The subtext is also gendered and classed in a typically Richardsonian way. “Men” are the ones congratulating themselves for being “too wise,” aligning skepticism with masculine mastery and cultural sophistication. Richardson pushes back by implying that the truly wise recognize limits: reason has range, not sovereignty. The line’s sting is its reversal - the supposed adult in the room may be the one most seduced by a comforting story, the story of his own superiority.
As a novelist of manners, Richardson understood that “reason” is often a social costume. In early 18th-century Britain, the rise of polite skepticism, Deist argument, and Enlightenment self-confidence didn’t just change what people believed; it changed what it signaled to believe or not believe. Religion could read as provincial or emotionally undisciplined. Richardson’s phrasing suggests that some men don’t leave faith because they’ve outgrown it, but because they’ve turned intelligence into status. The target is less atheism than arrogance: a mind so flattered by its own clarity that it can’t imagine other forms of knowing - moral, communal, existential.
The subtext is also gendered and classed in a typically Richardsonian way. “Men” are the ones congratulating themselves for being “too wise,” aligning skepticism with masculine mastery and cultural sophistication. Richardson pushes back by implying that the truly wise recognize limits: reason has range, not sovereignty. The line’s sting is its reversal - the supposed adult in the room may be the one most seduced by a comforting story, the story of his own superiority.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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