The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor. — Samuel Butler Ancient Copy Share Image
One who is proud of ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is underground — Samuel Butler Ancestry Copy Share Image
A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words. — Samuel Butler Aphorism Copy Share Image
The dons of Oxford and Cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime — Samuel Butler Death Copy Share Image
Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits. — Samuel Butler Autumn Copy Share Image
The phrase 'unconscious humor' is the one contribution I have made to the current literature of the day. — Samuel Butler Books Copy Share Image
People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy. — Samuel Butler Business Copy Share Image
Christ: I dislike him very much. Still, I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band of people whose… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how… — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
There should be asylums for habitual teetotalers, but they would probably relapse into teetotalism as soon as they got out. — Samuel Butler Alcoholism Copy Share Image
Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or anything else, is always a portrait of himself, and the… — Samuel Butler Books Copy Share Image
“The world is naturally averse to all truth it sees or hears but swallows nonsense and a lie with greediness and gluttony.” — Samuel Butler Greediness Copy Share Image
The wish to spread those opinions that we hold conducive to our own welfare is so deeply rooted in the English character… — Samuel Butler Character Copy Share Image
The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust. — Samuel Butler Approach Copy Share Image
Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself. — Samuel Butler Architecture Copy Share Image
If a man knows not life which he hath seen, how shall he know death, which he hath not seen? — Samuel Butler Death Copy Share Image
To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it. — Samuel Butler Instinct Copy Share Image
When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once. — Samuel Butler Copy Share Image
The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is. — 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
Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell it. — Samuel Butler 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
Morality turns on whether the pleasure precedes or follows the pain — Samuel Butler Character 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
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
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. — Samuel Butler Conviction Copy Share Image
“Union may be strength, but it is mere brute strength unless wisely directed.” — Samuel Butler Strength 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
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
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
Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so. — Samuel Butler 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
Opinion governs all mankind, like the blind's leading of the blind — Samuel Butler Leadership Copy Share Image
To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty. — Samuel Butler Beauty Copy Share Image
