All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him. — Samuel Butler Argument Copy Share Image
Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion. — Samuel Butler Death Copy Share Image
A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy. — Samuel Butler Gold Copy Share Image
For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine. — Samuel Butler Divine Copy Share Image
Genius is a nuisance, and it is the duty of schools and colleges to abate it by setting genius-traps in its way. — Samuel Butler Genius Copy Share Image
Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity? — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
“For as whipp'd tops and bandied balls, The learned hold, are animals; So horses they affirm to be Mere engines made by… — Samuel Butler Horses Copy Share Image
Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would… — Samuel Butler Adultery Copy Share Image
The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged… — Samuel Butler Doctor Copy Share Image
An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possessed with an error, it is,… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Memory and forgetfulness are as life and death to one another. To live is to remember and to remember is to live.… — Samuel Butler Death Copy Share Image
“His knowledge was not far behind The knight's, but of another kind, And he another way came by't ; Some call it… — Samuel Butler Art Copy Share Image
An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among… — Samuel Butler Ideas Copy Share Image
There is one class of mind that loves to lean on rules and definitions, and another that discards them as far as… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
“I know not why, but all the noblest arts hold in perfection but for a very little moment. They soon reach a… — Samuel Butler Art 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
“a good deal of unkindness and selfishness on the part of parents towards children is not generally followed by ill consequences to… — Samuel Butler Child Copy Share Image
Nature. As the word is now commonly used it excludes nature's most interesting productions-the works of man. Nature is usually taken to… — Samuel Butler Animal Copy Share Image
“It is hard enough to know whether one is happy or unhappy now, and still harder to compare the relative happiness or… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
You cannot have a thing "matter" by itself which shall have no motion in it, nor yet a thing "motion" by itself… — Samuel Butler Existence Copy Share Image
