121 quotes
The Will-be and the Has-been touch us more nearly than the Is. So we are more tender towards children and old people than to those who are in the prime of life.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
They say the test of this [literary power] is whether a man can write an inscription. I say “Can he name a kitten?” And by this test I am condemned, for I cannot.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Every new idea has something of the pain and peril of childbirth about it; ideas are just as mortal and just as immortal as organised beings are.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Every one should keep a mental waste-paper basket and the older he grows the more things he will consign to it — torn up to irrecoverable tatters.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
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.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
It is said of money that it is more easily made than kept and this is true of many things, such as friendship; and even life itself is more easily got than kept.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Painters should remember that the eye, as a general rule, is a good, simple, credulous organ — very ready to take things on trust if it be told them with any confidence of assertion.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Argument is generally waste of time and trouble. It is better to present one's opinion and leave it to stick or no as it may happen. If sound, it will probably in the end stick, and the sticking is the main thing.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
An artist's touches are sometimes no more articulate than the barking of a dog who would call attention to something without exactly knowing what. This is as it should be, and he is a great artist who can be depended on not to bark at nothing.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
There are some things which it is madness not to try to know but which it is almost as much madness to try to know.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Sin is like a mountain with two aspects according to whether it is viewed before or after it has been reached: yet both aspects are real.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
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.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
God does not intend people, and does not like people, to be too good. He likes them neither too good nor too bad, but a little too bad is more venial with him than a little too good.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Words impede and either kill, or are killed by, perfect thought; but they are, as a scaffolding, useful, if not indispensable, for the building up of imperfect thought and helping to perfect it.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
This poem [The Ancient Mariner] would not have taken so well if it had been called “The Old Sailor.”
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
My notes always grow longer if I shorten them. I mean the process of compression makes them more pregnant and they breed new notes.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
Money is the last enemy that shall never be subdued. While there is flesh there is money — or the want of money; but money is always on the brain so long as there is a brain in reasonable order.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
They [my thoughts] are like persons met upon a journey; I think them very agreeable at first but soon find, as a rule, that I am tired of them.
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)