Samuel Butler Quotes

A lawyer's dream of heaven - every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.

We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.

I do not mind lying but I hate inaccuracy.

To live is like to love - all reason is against it and all healthy instinct for it.

Man unlike the animal has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it.

Any fool can tell the truth but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

I reckon being ill is one of the greatest pleasures of life provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.

What runs through a person like water through a sieve.

The greatest 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.

All philosophies if you ride them home are nonsense but some are greater nonsense than others.

The advantage of doing one's praising to oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.

All progress is based upon the universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.

No matter how ill we may be nor how low we may have fallen we should not change identity with any other person.

Our self-conceit sustains and always must sustain us.

The foundations which we would dig about and find are within us like the Kingdom of Heaven rather than without.

One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten and to leave off fighting at once.

We grow weary of those things (and perhaps soonest) which we most desire.

Silence is not always tact and it is tact that is golden not silence.

People care more about being thought to have good taste than about being thought either good clever or amiable.

Our latest moment is always our supreme moment. Five minutes delay in dinner now is more important than a great sorrow ten years gone.

Loyalty is still the same Whether it win or lose the game True as a dial to the sun Although it be not shined upon.

To put one's trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.

It is the function of vice to keep virtue within reasonable grounds.

A virtue to be serviceable must like gold be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.

Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficacious I do not know.

Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.

Life is not an exact science, it is an art.

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.