Samuel Butler Quotes - Page 2

To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.

Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in actual use.

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

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.

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

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.

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

A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.

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

God and the Devil are an effort after specialisation and division of labour.

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.

One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.

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.

Christ: I dislike him very much. Still, I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band of people whose profession is to hoodwink us about him.

The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.

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.

Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. I you look at it to admire it, you are lost.

Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.

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.

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.

Prayers are to men as dolls are to children.

Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime

There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.