Samuel Butler Quotes
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People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy.
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Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
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The sinews of art and literature, like those of war, are money.
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If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.
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Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.
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There is such a thing as doing good that evil may come.
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The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.
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Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.
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To know God better is only to realize how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish to deny him, or define him.
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Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity?
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A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.
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The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.
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Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch a cold on overexposure.
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Silence and tact may or may not be the same thing.
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When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.
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God and the Devil are an effort after specialization and the division of labor.
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The history of art is the history of revivals.
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Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.
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It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
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A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.
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I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.
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Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we have got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst of them.
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If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.
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From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.