Quotes By Samuel Butler

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.

All truth is not to be told at all times.

We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms.

The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is.

A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.

They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, 'Can he name a kitten?'

Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.

To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

Oaths are but words, and words are but wind.

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.

The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them.

If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.

Money is the last enemy that shall never be subdued. While there is flesh there is money or the want of money, but money is always on the brain so long as there is a brain in reasonable order.

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.

Priests are not men of the world; it is not intended that they should be; and a University training is the one best adapted to prevent their becoming so.

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.

Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both.

The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.

There is no true gracefulness which is not epitomized goodness.

Christ: I dislike him very much. Still, I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band of people whose profession is to hoodwink us about him.

The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.

Life is one long process of getting tired.

Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science.

Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers.

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.