Welcome to our collection of Samuel Butler quotes! Samuel Butler, an English author, was known for his insightful observations on various aspects of life, including art, literature, and human nature. Born in the early 19th century, Butler’s works continue to inspire and resonate with readers around the world.
Throughout his writings, Butler displayed a keen wit and a profound understanding of the complexities of human existence. His quotes often provoke thought and reflection, offering timeless wisdom that remains relevant in the modern era. Whether commenting on the follies of society or the nature of creativity, Butler’s words have a timeless quality that continues to captivate audiences.
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. Samuel Butler
We all like to forgive, and love best not those who offend us least, nor who have done most for us, but those who make it most easy for us to forgive them. Samuel Butler
Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them. Samuel Butler
Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him. Samuel Butler
Life is not an exact science, it is an art. Samuel Butler
If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death. Samuel Butler
One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once. Samuel Butler
Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character. Samuel Butler
Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch a cold on overexposure. Samuel Butler
Our ideas are for the most part like bad sixpences, and we spend our lives trying to pass them on one another. Samuel Butler
It is the function of vice to keep virtue within reasonable bounds. Samuel Butler
If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good deal less sorrow in the world a hundred years hence. Samuel Butler
I never knew a writer yet who took the smallest pains with his style and was at the same time readable. Samuel Butler
If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success. Samuel Butler
Don’t learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world. Samuel Butler
There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon. Samuel Butler
It is seldom very hard to do one’s duty when one knows what it is, but it is often exceedingly difficult to find this out. Samuel Butler
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. Samuel Butler
Oaths are but words, and words are but wind. Samuel Butler
If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue. Samuel Butler
A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy. Samuel Butler
A physician’s physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric’s divinity has to his power of influencing conduct. Samuel Butler
For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine. Samuel Butler
Life is one long process of getting tired. Samuel Butler
Self-preservation is the first law of nature. Samuel Butler
The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them. Samuel Butler
We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself. Samuel Butler
Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule. Samuel Butler
To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead. Samuel Butler
A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war. Samuel Butler
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. Samuel Butler
A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg. Samuel Butler
The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance. Samuel Butler
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
Neither irony or sarcasm is argument. Samuel Butler
The history of art is the history of revivals. Samuel Butler
There is no true gracefulness which is not epitomized goodness. Samuel Butler
A man’s friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage – but they are also no less invalidated by the marriage of his friends. Samuel Butler
Nobody shoots at Santa Claus. Samuel Butler
Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. Samuel Butler
Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficacious I do not know. Samuel Butler
The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion. Samuel Butler
God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch. Samuel Butler
If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention to him. Samuel Butler
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. Samuel Butler
In the midst of vice we are in virtue, and vice versa. Samuel Butler
People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable. Samuel Butler
Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. Samuel Butler
The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science. Samuel Butler
All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. Samuel Butler
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income. Samuel Butler
The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust. Samuel Butler
Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity? Samuel Butler
Be virtuous and you will be vicious. Samuel Butler
Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning. Samuel Butler
An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books. Samuel Butler
My main wish is to get my books into other people’s rooms, and to keep other people’s books out of mine. Samuel Butler
People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced. Samuel Butler
The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt. Samuel Butler
Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions. Samuel Butler
The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way. Samuel Butler
Silence and tact may or may not be the same thing. Samuel Butler
To know God better is only to realize how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish to deny him, or define him. Samuel Butler
Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. Samuel Butler
Faith – you can do very little with it, but you can do nothing without it. Samuel Butler
Logic is like the sword – those who appeal to it, shall perish by it. Samuel Butler
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them. Samuel Butler
Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances. Samuel Butler
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. Samuel Butler
Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence. Samuel Butler
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. Samuel Butler
He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still. Samuel Butler
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. Samuel Butler
Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature. Samuel Butler
The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next worst his reputation. Samuel Butler
They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, ‘Can he name a kitten?’ Samuel Butler
All truth is not to be told at all times. Samuel Butler
Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so. Samuel Butler
Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance. Samuel Butler
God cannot alter the past, though historians can. Samuel Butler
No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction. Samuel Butler
From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right. Samuel Butler
Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children. Samuel Butler
He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. God will take care that we do not enjoy it any more than is good for us. Samuel Butler
Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both. Samuel Butler
We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms. Samuel Butler
The only living works are those which have drained much of the author’s own life into them. Samuel Butler
Justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes. Samuel Butler
The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. Samuel Butler
Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap. Samuel Butler
Death is only a larger kind of going abroad. Samuel Butler
Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine. Samuel Butler
A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand. Samuel Butler
There is no bore like a clever bore. Samuel Butler
Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it. Samuel Butler
God and the Devil are an effort after specialization and the division of labor. Samuel Butler
Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty, bodily or mental. Samuel Butler
What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer liveth. Samuel Butler
Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself. Samuel Butler
To live is like to love – all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it. Samuel Butler