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Samuel Butler Quotes

1612–1680 England

Samuel Butler (February 8 1612 – September 25 1680) was an English satirical poet.

England
Poets
Satirists

Also known as: Samuel Butler (1612-1680), Hudibras

Random Samuel Butler quote

215 quotes

Love is a boy by poets styl'd;
Then spare the rod and spoil the child.

Part II (1664)

Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated as to cheat.

Part II (1664)

As men of inward light are wont
To turn their optics in upon 't.

Part III (1678)

For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.

Part III (1678)

Have always been at daggers-drawing,
And one another clapper-clawing.

Part II (1664)

For truth is precious and divine,—
Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

Part II (1664)

There 's but the twinkling of a star
Between a man of peace and war.

Part II (1664)

Love in your hearts as idly burns
As fire in antique Roman urns.

Part II (1664)

'Cause grace and virtue are within
Prohibited degrees of kin;
And therefore no true saint allows
They shall be suffer'd to espouse.

Part III (1678)

To swallow gudgeons ere they 're catch'd,
And count their chickens ere they're hatch'd.

Part II (1664)

No Indian prince has to his palace
More followers than a thief to the gallows.

Part II (1664)

Why should not conscience have vacation
As well as other courts o' th' nation?

Part II (1664)

But still his tongue ran on, the less
Of weight it bore, with greater ease.

Part III (1678)

True as the dial to the sun,
Although it be not shin'd upon.

Part III (1678)

Ay me! what perils do environ
The man that meddles with cold iron!

Part I (1663)

He that complies against his will.
Is of his own opinion still.

Part III (1678)

There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.

The Genuine Remains in Verse and Prose of Mr. Samuel Butler (1759)

With many a stiff thwack, many a bang,
Hard crab-tree and old iron rang.

Part I (1663)

Quoth Hudibras, "I smell a rat!
Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate."

Part I (1663)

Like feather bed betwixt a wall
And heavy brunt of cannon ball.

Part I (1663)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Samuel Butler (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.