Samuel Butler quotes

“The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next worst his reputation.”

— Samuel Butler

“To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.”

— Samuel Butler

“Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.”

— Samuel Butler

“The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.”

— Samuel Butler

“We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself.”

— Samuel Butler

“From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.”

— Samuel Butler

“A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.”

— Samuel Butler

“Is life worth living? This is a question for an embryo not for a man.”

— Samuel Butler

“Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.”

— Samuel Butler

“Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.”

— Samuel Butler

“Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.”

— Samuel Butler

“The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor.”

— Samuel Butler

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

— Samuel Butler

“For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.”

— Samuel Butler

“Logic is like the sword - those who appeal to it, shall perish by it.”

— Samuel Butler

“When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.”

— Samuel Butler

“The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.”

— Samuel Butler

“Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both.”

— Samuel Butler

“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.”

— Samuel Butler

“If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.”

— Samuel Butler

“People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.”

— Samuel Butler

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

— Samuel Butler

“Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.”

— Samuel Butler

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

— Samuel Butler

“Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.”

— Samuel Butler

“I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.”

— Samuel Butler

“I never knew a writer yet who took the smallest pains with his style and was at the same time readable.”

— Samuel Butler

“The history of art is the history of revivals.”

— Samuel Butler

“To die is but to leave off dying and do the thing once for all.”

— Samuel Butler

“To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty.”

— Samuel Butler