Quotes By Samuel Butler

Let every man be true and every god a liar.

Life is not an exact science, it is an art.

It is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mould our lives and the lives of those who spring from us.

People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy.

A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those worth committing.

When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.

Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we have got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst of them.

A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

There is no bore like a clever bore.

You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.

To die is but to leave off dying and do the thing once for all.

A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.