Famous Quotes by Samuel Butler
- Why should the generations overlap one another at all? Why cannot we be buried as eggs in neat... More
- Could any death be so horrible as birth? Or any decrepitude so awful as childhood in a happy... More
- The parents who wish to lead a quiet life I would say: Tell your children that they are very... More
- If there could be such a thing as the Mammon of Righteousness Christina would have assuredly made... More
- The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday. Things must not be done in him which are... More
- Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime. A man at... More
- Mr. Tennyson has said that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, but he... More
- Theorists may say what they like about a man’s children being a continuation of his own... More
- A clergyman, again, can hardly ever allow himself to look facts fairly in the face. It is his... More
- The old saying of Buffon’s that style is the man himself is as near the truth as we can... More
- Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances. More
- There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon. More
- For every why he had a wherefore. More
- ‘Twas English cut on Greek and Latin,
Like fustian heretofore on satin; More
- For rhetoric, he could not ope
His mouth, but out there flew a trope;
And when he... More
- Such as take lodgings in a head
That’s to be let unfurnished. More
- And bid the devil take the hin’most. More
- This Light inspires, and plays upon
The nose of Saint like Bag-pipe drone,
And speaks... More
- In mathematics he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
For he, by geometric... More
- And when we can with Meeter safe,
We’ll call him so, if not plain Ralph,
For Rhime the... More
- Then spare the rod and spoil the child. More
- What makes all doctrines plain and clear?
About two hundred pounds a year.
And that which... More
- Neither have they hearts to stay,
Nor wit enough to run away. More
- He could foretell whats’ever was
By consequence to come to pass.
As Death of Great Men,... More
- A skilful leech is better far
Than half a hundred men of war. More
- When civil fury first grew high,
And men fell out, they knew not why;
When hard words,... More
- Love is a boy, by poets styled,
Then spare the rod and spoil the child. More
- For he could coin, or counterfeit
New words, with little or no wit;
Words so debas’d... More
- For all a rhetorician’s rules
Teach nothing but to name his tools. More
- It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and so make only two... More
- A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg. More
- An apology for the Devil—it must be remembered that we have only heard one side of the case.... More
- When the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that... More
- The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it... More
- Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until... More
- Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. More
- Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions. More
- I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy. More
- All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond... More
- The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he... More
- The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion. More
- Governments like natural bodies have their time of growing perfection and declining, and... More
- In the midst of vice we are in virtue, and vice versa. More
- I have been told lately that Fuseli was travelling by coach and a gentleman opposite him said:... More
- The body is but a pair of pincers set over a bellows and a stewpan and the whole fixed upon stilts. More
- When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through... More
- Silence and tact may or may not be the same thing. More
- H.F. Jones’s mother—I said of her once that to have known her is an illiberal education. More
- The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions. More
- The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that... More
- The sinews of art and literature, like those of war, are money. More
- Our ideas are for the most part like bad sixpences, and we spend our lives trying to pass them on... More
- Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely... More
- I said in my novel that the clergyman is a kind of human Sunday. Jones and I settled that my... More
- Union may be strength, but it is mere blind brute strength unless wisely directed. More
- “Promise me solemnly,” I said to her as she lay on what I believed to be her death bed, “if... More
- The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not... More
- My father is one of the few men I know who say they do not like Shakespeare. He says... More
- Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and... More
- Christ: I dislike him very much; still I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band... More
- Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom... More
- The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his... More
- Christianity was only a very strong and singularly well-timed Salvation Army movement that... More
- Is life worth living? This is a question for an embryo, not for a man. More
- My main wish is to get my books into other people’s rooms, and to keep other people’s books... More
- Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and... More
- In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for... More
- The want of money is the root of all evil. More
- Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies. More
- In his latest article (Feb. 1892) Prof. Garner says that the chatter of monkeys is not... More
- I believe that he was really sorry that people would not believe he was sorry that he was not... More
- Opinions have vested interests just as men have. More
- Mrs. Skinner told Jones that Mrs. N. was a very fascinating woman, and that Mr. W. was very fond... More
- Don’t learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them... More
- The world will only, in the end, follow those who have despised as well as served it. More
- The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has... More
- Priests are not men of the world; it is not intended that they should be; and a University... More
- It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring... More
- Science, after all, is only an expression for our ignorance of our own ignorance. More
- If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will... More
- Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it. More
- He might begin the Day of Judgement, but he would probably find himself in the dock long before... More
- My thoughts: They are like persons met upon a journey—I think them very agreeable at first, but... More
- Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more... More
- There are two great rules in life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that... More
- If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success. More
- He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. God will take care that we do not enjoy it... More
- There is but one step from the Academy to the Fad. More
- Morality is the custom of one’s country and the current feeling of one’s peers. Cannibalism... More
- There is more truth in honest lies,
Believe me, than in half the truths. More
- There is no bore like a clever bore. More
- There is no such source of error as the pursuit of absolute truth. More
- Money is the last enemy that shall never be subdued. While there is flesh there is money—or the... More
- There is no true gracefulness which is not epitomized goodness. More
- Critics generally come to be critics not by reason of their fitness for this, but of their... More
- There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought. More
- There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death. More
- There is such a thing as doing good that evil may come. More
- The dons of Oxford and Cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them... More
- It is immoral to get drunk because the headache comes after the drinking, but if the headache... More
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