Quotes

“It is tact that is golden, not silence.” Samuel Butler

“A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.” Samuel Butler

“Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.” Samuel Butler

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

“Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.” Samuel Butler

“Life is not an exact science, it is an art.” Samuel Butler

“Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.” Samuel Butler

“To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.” Samuel Butler

“Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one.” Samuel Butler

“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.” Samuel Butler

“Self-preservation is the first law of nature.” Samuel Butler

“A physician's physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric's divinity has to his power of influencing conduct.” Samuel Butler

“It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.” Samuel Butler

“Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.” Samuel Butler

“All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.” Samuel Butler

“An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.” Samuel Butler

“In law, nothing is certain but the expense.” Samuel Butler

“Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him. If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success.” Samuel Butler

“If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue.” Samuel Butler

“A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.” Samuel Butler

“Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap.” Samuel Butler

“God cannot alter the past, though historians can.” Samuel Butler

“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