Samuel Butler quotes
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“The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (1827). “The genuine poetical remains of Samuel Butler, with notes by R. Thyer. With a selection from the author's Characters in prose”, p.225
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“Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4163, Delphi Classics
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“Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Speech at the Somerville Club, 27 Feb. 1895, in R. A. Streatfield Essays on Life, Art and Science (1904) p. 69
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“Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Sir Francis Bacon, Samuel Butler, William Morris (2014). “The Utopia MEGAPACK ®: 20 Classic Utopian and Dystopian Works”, p.31, Wildside Press LLC
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“Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (1951). “Notebooks”
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“To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4356, Delphi Classics
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“All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 19
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“Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4082, Delphi Classics
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“The great 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.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Notebooks (1912) ch. 14
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“The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”
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“Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.”
-- 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 -
“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Notebooks "Life" (1912)
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“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 -
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“It is tact that is golden, not silence.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.43, ReadHowYouWant.com
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“Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (2016). “The Way of All Flesh”, p.57, Samuel Butler
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“When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.”
-- Samuel Butler -
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“All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good deal less sorrow in the world a hundred years hence.”
-- 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 -
“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 -
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“The history of art is the history of revivals.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.”
-- Samuel Butler -
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“Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4373, Delphi Classics
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“They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, 'Can he name a kitten?'”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such.”
-- Samuel Butler -
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“[P]oetry resembles metaphysics: one does not mind one's own, but one does not like anyone else's.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell it.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“The advantage of doing one's praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.”
-- Samuel Butler -
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“Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Lectures on the English Comic Writers "On Wit and Humor" (1818)
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“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 -
“Justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.”
-- Samuel Butler -
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“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 -
“God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“And so there is no God but has been in the loins of past gods.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Prayers are to men as dolls are to children.”
-- Samuel Butler -
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“Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”
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“Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap.”
-- Samuel Butler -
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“From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue.”
-- Samuel Butler -
“Life is not an exact science, it is an art.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.440, The Floating Press
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“A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.”
-- Samuel Butler -
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“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 -
“Life is one long process of getting tired.”
-- Samuel ButlerSource : Notebooks (1912) ch. 1
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“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
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