Quotes By Samuel Butler

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.

When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing to do is die at once.

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.

From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

In the midst of vice we are in virtue, and vice versa.

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

Faith - you can do very little with it, but you can do nothing without it.

Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.

The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next worst his reputation.

My main wish is to get my books into other people's rooms, and to keep other people's books out of mine.

Let us eat and drink neither forgetting death unduly nor remembering it. The Lord hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, etc., and the less we think about it the better.

The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.