186 quotes
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.
The Way of All Flesh (1903)
Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration at the time. True inspiration always steals on a person; its importance not being fully recognised for some time.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Art has no end in view save the emphasising and recording in the most effective way some strongly felt interest or affection.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
God's merits are so transcendent that it is not surprising his faults should be in reasonable proportion.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
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's Notebooks (1951)
Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch cold on over-exposure.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
The advantage of doing one's praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.
The Way of All Flesh (1903)
The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.
The Way of All Flesh (1903)
To love God is to have good health, good looks, good sense, experience, a kindly nature and a fair balance of cash in hand.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious.
Further Extracts from the Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1934)
A man's friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage—but they are also no less invalidated by the marriage of his friends.
The Way of All Flesh (1903)
One great reason why clergymen's households are generally unhappy is because the clergyman is so much at home or close about the house.
The Way of All Flesh (1903)
The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.
Youth is like spring, an overpraised season.
The Way of All Flesh (1903)
It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.
Erewhon (1872)
The limits of the body seem well defined enough as definitions go, but definitions seldom go far.
Ramblings in Cheapside (1890)
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
To himself every one is an immortal: he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)