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Attributed quotes — Samuel Butler

1612–1680 England

← All quotes by Samuel Butler

89 quotes

In all the world there is no vice
Less prone t’ excess than avarice;
It neither cares for food nor clothing;
Nature’s content with little—that with nothing.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

Night is the Sabbath of mankind,
To rest the body and the mind.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

The souls of women are so small,
That some believe they’ve none at all;
Or, if they have, like cripples, still
They’ve but one faculty, the will.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

For discords make the sweetest airs.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

He that is down can fall no lower.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

With vollies of eternal babble.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

The feeblest vermin can destroy,
As sure as stoutest beasts of prey;
And only with their eyes and breath
Infect, and poison men to death.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

What makes a church a den of thieves?
A dean and chapter, and white sleeves.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

Ah me! what perils do environ
The man that meddles with cold iron!
What plaguy mischiefs and mishaps
Do dog him still with after-claps.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

And as the French we conquer’d once,
Now give us laws for pantaloons,
The length of breeches and the gathers,
Port-cannons, periwigs, and feathers.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

Full oft have letters caused the writers
To curse the day they were inditers.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

He could raise scruples dark and nice,
And after solve ’em in a trice;
As if Divinity had catch’d
The itch, on purpose to be scratch’d.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

He that has but impudence,
To all things has a fair pretence;
And put among his wants but shame,
To all the world may lay his claim.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

He that would win his dame must do
As love does when he draws his bow;
With one hand thrust the lady from,
And with the other pull her home.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

Quoth he, That man is sure to lose,
That fouls his hands with dirty foes;
For where no honor’s to be gain’d,
’Tis thrown away in being maintain’d.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

’Tis strange how some men’s tempers suit,
Like bawd and brandy, with dispute,
That for their own opinions stand fast,
Only to have them claw’d and canvass’d.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

To have the power to forgive,
Is empire and prerogative,
And ’tis in crowns a nobler gem,
To grant a pardon than condemn.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

Too much or too little wit
Do only render th’ owner fit
For nothing, but to be undone
Much easier than if they’d none.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

And when the fight becomes a chase,
Those win the day that win the race;
And that which would not pass in fights,
Has done the feat with easy flights.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

As the ancients wisely say
Have a care o’ th’ main chance,
And look before you ere you leap;
For as you sow y’are like to reap.

Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

Attribution

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