Samuel Butler

“People are lucky and unlucky ... according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.”

“I keep my books at the British Museum and at Mudies.”

“The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.”

“Books should be tried by a judge and jury as though they were crimes.”

“The test of a good critic is whether he knows when and how to believe on insufficient evidence.”

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

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

“The tendency of modern science is to reduce proof to absurdity by continually reducing absurdity to proof.”

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

“A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.”

“All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it.”

“All animals except man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it.”

“All progress is based upon a universal, innate desire on the part of every living organism to live beyond its income.”

“To live is like to love: all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct is for it.”

“The public do not know enough to be experts, yet know enough to decide between them.”

“A lawyer's dream of heaven - every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.”

“Life is one long process of getting tired.”

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

“When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing to do is to die at once.”

“All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.”