Samuel Butler Quotes

Quotes about:

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  Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

  Samuel Butler

  Integrity, Grateful, Character

  Sir Francis Bacon, Samuel Butler, William Morris (2014). “The Utopia MEGAPACK ®: 20 Classic Utopian and Dystopian Works”, p.31, Wildside Press LLC

  60 Copy quote

• Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.

  Samuel Butler

  Motivational

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4163, Delphi Classics

  80 Copy quote

• Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.

  Samuel Butler

  Freedom, Book, Soul

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Notebooks”

  40 Copy quote

• All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

  Samuel Butler

  Life, Motivational, Happiness

  Way of All Flesh (1903) ch. 19

  36 Copy quote

• The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.

  Samuel Butler

  Ignorance, Character, Pride

  Samuel Butler (1827). “The genuine poetical remains of Samuel Butler, with notes by R. Thyer. With a selection from the author's Characters in prose”, p.225

  52 Copy quote

• Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

  Samuel Butler

  Life, Educational, Learning

  Speech at the Somerville Club, 27 Feb. 1895, in R. A. Streatfield Essays on Life, Art and Science (1904) p. 69

  109 Copy quote

• Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

  Samuel Butler

  Life, Wisdom, Art

  Notebooks "Life" (1912)

  16 Copy quote

• Death is only a larger kind of going abroad.

  Samuel Butler

  Sympathy, Kind, Death Sympathy

  Samuel Butler (1950). “The Essential Samuel Butler”, London : J. Cape

  10 Copy quote

• An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.

  Samuel Butler

  Funny, God, Im Sorry

  Notebooks ch. 14 (1912)

  16 Copy quote

• Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

  Samuel Butler

  Inspirational, Motivational, Music

  Samuel Butler (2016). “The Way of All Flesh”, p.57, Samuel Butler

  28 Copy quote

• Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

  Samuel Butler

  Funny, Friendship, Sarcastic

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.126, ReadHowYouWant.com

  41 Copy quote

• The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.

  Samuel Butler

  Life, Happiness, Fear

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”

  32 Copy quote

• If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.

  Samuel Butler

  Logic, Reason, Enough

  Samuel Butler (1970). “A critical and annotated edition of Samuel Butler's Erewhon”

  13 Copy quote

• There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.

  Samuel Butler

  Funny, Death, Men

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4373, Delphi Classics

  11 Copy quote

• You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.

  Samuel Butler

  Faith, Motivation, Littles

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4356, Delphi Classics

  21 Copy quote

• The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.

  Samuel Butler

  Religious, Men, Important

  Further Extracts from Notebooks (1934) p. 93

  30 Copy quote

• God was satisfied with his own work, and that is fatal.

  Samuel Butler

  Creativity, Satisfied

  Samuel Butler (1950). “The Essential Samuel Butler”

  11 Copy quote

• God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

  Samuel Butler

  Education, Past, History

  15 Copy quote

• Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.

  Samuel Butler

  Lying, Pay, Kind

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.197, ReadHowYouWant.com

  22 Copy quote

• 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.

  Samuel Butler

  People, Lucky, Ratios

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Large Edition”, p.33, ReadHowYouWant.com

  38 Copy quote

• God and the Devil are an effort after specialisation and division of labour.

  Samuel Butler

  Division Of Labor, Effort, Devil

  "The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Large Edition".

  10 Copy quote

• One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.

  Samuel Butler

  Sunset, Fighting, Men

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”

  10 Copy quote

• Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.

  Samuel Butler

  People, Common Sense, Atmosphere

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”

  12 Copy quote

• Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

  Samuel Butler

  Fear, Halloween, Inspiration

  59 Copy quote

• To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.

  Samuel Butler

  Love, Life, History

  Notebooks (1912) ch. 14

  37 Copy quote

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