Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character. — Samuel Butler Character Copy Share Image
God and the Devil are an effort after specialisation and division of labour. — Samuel Butler Devil Copy Share Image
We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms. — Samuel Butler Atoms Copy Share Image
“I have never written on any subject unless I believed that the authorities on it were hopelessly wrong.” — Samuel Butler Confidence Copy Share Image
What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer liveth. — Samuel Butler Betting Copy Share Image
Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. — Samuel Butler Art Copy Share Image
Business should be like religion and science; it should know neither love nor hate. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
We all like to forgive, and love best not those who offend us least, nor who have done most for us, but… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he… — Samuel Butler Animal Copy Share Image
Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game; as true as a dial to the sun, although it… — Samuel Butler Football Copy Share Image
Happiness and misery depend not on how high up or low down you are - they depend not upon these, but on… — Samuel Butler Happiness Copy Share Image
Let us eat and drink neither forgetting death unduly nor remembering it. The Lord hath mercy on whom he will have mercy,… — Samuel Butler Compassion Copy Share Image
“A credulous mind . . . finds most delight in believing strange things, and the stranger they are the easier they pass… — Samuel Butler Credulous Copy Share Image
A man should have any number of little aims about which he should be conscious and for which he should have names,… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
“Embryo minds, like embryo bodies, pass through a number of strange metamorphoses before they adopt their final shape.” — Samuel Butler Evolution Copy Share Image
Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it. — Samuel Butler Conscience Copy Share Image
There is a photographer in every bush, going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. — Samuel Butler Gossip Copy Share Image
We all love best not those who offend us least, but those who make it most easy for us to forgive them. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Spontaneity is only a term for man's ignorance of the gods — Samuel Butler Ignorance Copy Share Image
The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions. — Samuel Butler Conservative Copy Share Image
“To do great work one must be very idle as well as very industrious.” — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
We are not won by arguments that we can analyze but by the tone and temper, by the manner which is the… — Samuel Butler Argument Copy Share Image
One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them. — Samuel Butler Academic Copy Share Image
Faith - you can do very little with it, but you can do nothing without it. — Samuel Butler Faith Copy Share Image
“Union may be strength, but it is mere brute strength unless wisely directed.” — Samuel Butler Strength Copy Share Image
Opinion governs all mankind, like the blind's leading of the blind — Samuel Butler Leadership Copy Share Image
Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers. — Samuel Butler Character Copy Share Image
Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
“Truth might be heroic, but it was not within the range of practical domestic politics.” — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Morality turns on whether the pleasure precedes or follows the pain — Samuel Butler Character Copy Share Image
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. — Samuel Butler Fool Copy Share Image
Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell it. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Theist and atheist: the fight between them is as to whether God shall be called God or shall have some other name. — Samuel Butler Atheist Copy Share Image
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. — Samuel Butler Conviction Copy Share Image
Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
I never knew a writer yet whotook the smallest pains with his style and was at the same time readable. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
