Skip to content

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

Honour is like a widow, won
With brisk attempt and putting on.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

Such as take lodgings in a head
That's to be let unfurnished.

Now, while the honour thou hast got
Is spick and span new.

Deep sighted in intelligences,
Ideas, atoms, influences.

While the honour thou hast got
Is spick and span new.

Part I (1663)

Some have been beaten till they know
What wood a cudgel's of by th' blow;
Some kick'd until they can feel whether
A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.

Part II (1664)

All piety consists therein
In them, in other men all sin...

Part I (1663)

And poets by their sufferings grow;
As if there were no more to do,
To make a poet excellent,
But only want and discontent.

He knew what 's what, and that 's as high
As metaphysic wit can fly.

Part I (1663)

If he that in the field is slain
Be in the bed of honour lain,
He that is beaten may be said
To lie in honour's truckle-bed.

Part I (1663)

And bid the devil take the hin'most.

Part I (1663)

And fire a mine in China, here
With sympathetic gunpowder.

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

'Tis virtue, wit, and worth, and all
That men divine and sacred call;
For what is worth, in anything,
But so much money as 't will bring?

Hudibras, Part II (1664)

And though it be a two-foot trout,
'Tis with a single hair pulled out.

So justice while she winks at crimes,
Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

Hudibras, Canto II (1664)

And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,
Was beat with fist instead of a stick.

This hairy meteor did announce
The fall of sceptres and of crowns.

We grant, although he had much wit,
He was very shy of using it.

Part I (1663)

As the ancients
Say wisely, have a care o' th' main chance,
And look before you ere you leap;
For as you sow, ye are like to reap.

Part II (1664)

The sun had long since in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his nap,
And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn.

Part II (1664)

Attribution

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