Quotes by Samuel Butler

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Samuel Butler

There is no true gracefulness which is not epitomized goodness.

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

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.

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

Justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

Samuel Butler

Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.

Samuel Butler

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

Samuel Butler

No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.

Samuel Butler

The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.

Samuel Butler

There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.

Samuel Butler

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

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

If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.

Samuel Butler

If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.

Samuel Butler

Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.

Samuel Butler

Though analogy is often misleading, it is the least misleading thing we have.

Samuel Butler

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt.

Samuel Butler

There is no bore like a clever bore.

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

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

Samuel Butler