Samuel Butler Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it - and they do enjoy it as much as man and other circumstances will allow.

  Samuel Butler

  Animal, Men, Humanity

  'The Way of All Flesh' (1903) ch. 19

  5 Copy quote

• There are two great rules of life; the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can, in the end, get what he wants, if he only tries. That is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is, more or less, an exception to the rule.

  Samuel Butler

  Two, Exception To The Rule, Trying

  6 Copy quote

• Whatsoever we perpetrate, we do but row; we are steered by fate.

  Samuel Butler

  Fate, Destiny

  4 Copy quote

• The Bible may be the truth, but it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

  Samuel Butler

  Bible, Biblical, May

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Notebooks”

  4 Copy quote

• Brigands will demand your money or your life, but a woman will demand both

  Samuel Butler

  Maturity, Demand, Women Bashing

  4 Copy quote

• Since God himself cannot change the past, He is obliged to tolerate the existence of historians.

  Samuel Butler

  Past, History, Existence

  4 Copy quote

• History is a bucket of ashes.

  Samuel Butler

  Carpe Diem, Buckets, Ashes

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• I believe that he was really sorry that people would not believe he was sorry that he was not more sorry.

  Samuel Butler

  Sorry, Regret, Believe

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Notebooks: Selections Edited by Geoffrey Keynes and Brian Hill”

  6 Copy quote

• The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation.

  Samuel Butler

  Ethics, Morality, Stagnation

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4218, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• He dons are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything.

  Samuel Butler

  Education, Teaching, Men

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.277, The Floating Press

  36 Copy quote

• Our own death is a premium which we must pay for the far greater benefit we have derived from the fact that so many people have not only lived but also died before us.

  Samuel Butler

  Death, People, Dying

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Large Edition”, p.24, ReadHowYouWant.com

  4 Copy quote

• If a man knows not life which he hath seen, how shall he know death, which he hath not seen?

  Samuel Butler

  Death, Men, Dying

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4374, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• There are two classes [of scientists], those who want to know, and do not care whether others think they know or not, and those who do not much care about knowing, but care very greatly about being reputed as knowing.

  Samuel Butler

  Knowledge, Science, Thinking

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.272, The Floating Press

  4 Copy quote

• In practice it is seldom very hard to do one's duty when one knows what it is, but it is sometimes extremely difficult to find this out.

  Samuel Butler

  Practice, Sometimes, Duty

  Samuel Butler (1926). “The Shrewsbury Edition of the Works of Samuel Butler: The notebooks of Samuel Butler”

  4 Copy quote

• Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away.

  Samuel Butler

  Running, Heart, Enough

  Samuel Butler, “Hudibras: Part 3 - Canto II”

  11 Copy quote

• Adversity, if a man is set down to it by degrees, is more supportable with equanimity by most people than any great prosperity arrived at in a single lifetime.

  Samuel Butler

  Failure, Adversity, Men

  'The Way of All Flesh' (1903) ch. 5

  4 Copy quote

• There is no permanent absolute unchangeable truth; what we should pursue is the most convenient arrangement of our ideas.

  Samuel Butler

  Truth, Honesty, Ideas

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.374, The Floating Press

  4 Copy quote

• The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.

  Samuel Butler

  Meat, Principles, Public Opinion

  'Notebooks' (1912) ch. 17

  6 Copy quote

• A man should have any number of little aims about which he should be conscious and for which he should have names, but he should have neither name for, nor consciousness concerning the main aim of his life.

  Samuel Butler

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Men

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4240, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.

  Samuel Butler

  Sarcastic, Stupid, Born

  4 Copy quote

• Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

  Samuel Butler

  Justice, Injustice, Justice And Injustice

  Collected in H F Jones (ed) The Notebooks of Samuel Butler (1912).

  7 Copy quote

• It is not sufficiently considered in the hour of exultation, that all human excellence is comparative; that no man performs much but in proportion to what other accomplish, or to the time and opportunities which have been allowed him.

  Samuel Butler

  Success, Opportunity, Men

  4 Copy quote

• They say the test of [literary power] is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, "Can he name a kitten?" And by this test I am condemned, for I cannot.

  Samuel Butler

  Writing, Cat, Men

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4166, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• You cannot have a thing "matter" by itself which shall have no motion in it, nor yet a thing "motion" by itself which shall exist apart from matter; you must have both or neither. You can have matter moving much, or little, and in all conceivable ways; but you cannot have matter without any motion more than you can have motion without any matter that is moving.

  Samuel Butler

  Moving, Science, Littles

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.103, The Floating Press

  4 Copy quote

• A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.

  Samuel Butler

  Wall, Science, Ideas

  'Notebooks' (1912) ch. 14

  10 Copy quote

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