Quotes

“You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.” Samuel Butler

“A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.” Samuel Butler

“All truth is not to be told at all times.” Samuel Butler

“And so there is no God but has been in the loins of past gods.” Samuel Butler

“Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.” Samuel Butler

“Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.” Samuel Butler

“Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since.” Samuel Butler

“Death is only a larger kind of going abroad.” Samuel Butler

“Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.” Samuel Butler

“Faith - you can do very little with it, but you can do nothing without it.” Samuel Butler

“God and the Devil are an effort after specialization and the division of labor.” Samuel Butler

“God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch.” Samuel Butler

“God was satisfied with his own work, and that is fatal.” Samuel Butler

“He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. God will take care that we do not enjoy it any more than is good for us.” Samuel Butler

“He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still.” Samuel Butler

“In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfying the Irish nation.” Samuel Butler

“In the midst of vice we are in virtue, and vice versa.” Samuel Butler

“It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.” Samuel Butler

“It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of respectable parents.” Samuel Butler

“It is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mould our lives and the lives of those who spring from us.” Samuel Butler

“It is seldom very hard to do one's duty when one knows what it is, but it is often exceedingly difficult to find this out.” Samuel Butler

“It is the function of vice to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.” Samuel Butler

“Justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.” Samuel Butler

“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.” Samuel Butler

“Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity?” Samuel Butler

“Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions.” Samuel Butler

“Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty, bodily or mental.” Samuel Butler

“Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers.” Samuel Butler

“No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.” Samuel Butler

“Opinions have vested interests just as men have.” Samuel Butler