Samuel Butler Quotes - Page 3

There should be asylums for habitual teetotalers, but they would probably relapse into teetotalism as soon as they got out.

Men of Science. If they are worthy of the name they are indeed about God's path and about his bed and spying out all his ways.

Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game; as true as a dial to the sun, although it be not shined upon.

How often do we not see children ruined through the virtues, real or supposed, of their parents?

There is no permanent absolute unchangeable truth; what we should pursue is the most convenient arrangement of our ideas.

A man should have any number of little aims about which he should be conscious and for which he should have names, but he should have neither name for, nor consciousness concerning the main aim of his life.

Adversity, if a man is set down to it by degrees, is more supportable with equanimity by most people than any great prosperity arrived at in a single lifetime.

It is not sufficiently considered in the hour of exultation, that all human excellence is comparative; that no man performs much but in proportion to what other accomplish, or to the time and opportunities which have been allowed him.

The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation.

Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.

He dons are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything.

Our own death is a premium which we must pay for the far greater benefit we have derived from the fact that so many people have not only lived but also died before us.

Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away.

If a man knows not life which he hath seen, how shall he know death, which he hath not seen?

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period.

He is greatest who is most often in men's good thoughts.

There is a photographer in every bush, going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

In practice it is seldom very hard to do one's duty when one knows what it is, but it is sometimes extremely difficult to find this out.

He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.