We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfying the Irish nation. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
The man who takes time to explain his mistakes has little time left for anything else — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
God cannot alter the past, that is why he is obliged to connive at the existence of historians — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Genius is no respecter of time, trouble, money or persons, the four things around which human affairs turn most persistently. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Since God himself cannot change the past, He is obliged to tolerate the existence of historians. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
It is not sufficiently considered in the hour of exultation, that all human excellence is comparative; that no man performs much but… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration at the time. True inspiration always steals on a person; its importance… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
It seems to be the fate of man to seek all his consolations in futurity. The time present is seldom able to… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
“Everything matters more than we think it does, adn, at the same time, nothing matters so much as we think it does.… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
“It has been said that although God cannot alter the past, historians can --it is perhaps because they can be useful to… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
“So engrained in the human heart is the desire to believe that some people really do know what they say they know,… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
I am the enfant terrible of literature and science. If I cannot, and I know I cannot, get the literary and scientific bigwigs to… — Samuel Butler Copy Share
If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason. — Samuel Butler Copy Share
All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. — Samuel Butler Copy Share
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 Copy Share
“we must judge men not so much by what they, as by what they make us feel that they have it in them to… — Samuel Butler Copy Share
If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success. — Samuel Butler Copy Share
Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficacious I do not know. — Samuel Butler Copy Share
“Having, then, once introduced an element of inconsistency into his system, he was far too consistent not to be inconsistent consistently, and he lapsed… — Samuel Butler Copy Share
It is not sufficiently considered in the hour of exultation, that all human excellence is comparative; that no man performs much but in proportion… — Samuel Butler Copy Share
“The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.” — Samuel Butler Copy Share
