Quotes By Samuel Butler

The history of art is the history of revivals.

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

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.

God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch.

Mr. Tennyson has said that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, but he wisely refrains from saying whether they are good or bad things.

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

Silence and tact may or may not be the same thing.

The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.

The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.

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

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty, bodily or mental.

A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand.

Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since.