121 quotes
Many, if not most, good ideas die young — mainly from neglect on the part of the parents, but sometimes from over-fondness. Once well started, an opinion had better be left to shift for itself.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
The world will, in the end, follow only those who have despised as well as served it.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
To put one's trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
The dons are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
A great portrait is always more a portrait of the painter than of the painted.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in actual use.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Nothing will ever die so long as it knows what to do under the circumstances, in other words so long as it knows its business.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
All men can do great things, if they know what great things are.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
The true laws of God are the laws of our own well-being.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
He is greatest who is most often in men's good thoughts.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
An energy is a soul — a something working in us.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Always eat grapes downwards — that is, always eat the best grape first; in this way there will be none better left on the bunch, and each grape will seem good down to the last.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
The evil that men do lives after them. Yes, and a good deal of the evil that they never did as well.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
He who would propagate an opinion must begin by making sure of his ground and holding it firmly. There is as little use in trying to breed from weak opinion as from other weak stock.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
A man's style in any art should be like his dress — it should attract as little attention as possible.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
To try to live in posterity is to be like an actor who leaps over the footlights and talks to the orchestra.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)