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Quotes from Part II — Samuel Butler

1612–1680 England

← All quotes by Samuel Butler

19 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)

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)

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)

He that imposes an oath makes it,
Not he that for convenience takes it;
Then how can any man be said
To break an oath he never made?

Part II (1664)

Each window like a pill'ry appears,
With heads thrust thro' nail'd by the ears.

Part II (1664)

Quoth she, I 've heard old cunning stagers
Say fools for arguments use wagers.

Part II (1664)

For what is worth in anything
But so much money as 't will bring?

Part II (1664)

He made an instrument to know
If the moon shine at full or no.

Part II (1664)

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)

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)

But Hudibras gave him a twitch
As quick as lightning in the breech,
Just in the place where honour's lodg'd,
As wise philosophers have judg'd;
Because a kick in that part more
Hurts honour than deep wounds before.

Part II (1664)

Some force whole regions, in despite
O' geography, to change their site;
Make former times shake hands with latter,
And that which was before come after.
But those that write in rhyme still make
The one verse for the other's sake;
For one for sense, and one for rhyme,
I think 's sufficient at one time.

Part II (1664)

Attribution

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