Samuel Butler

“The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.”

“All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense; but some are greater nonsense than others.”

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

“No matter how ill we may be, nor how low we may have fallen, we should not change identity with any other person.”

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

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

“We grow weary of those things (and perhaps soonest) which we most desire.”

“Loyalty is still the same, Whether it win or lose the game; True as a dial to the sun, Although it be not shined upon.”

“To put one's trust in God is only a longer way of saying that one will chance it.”

“Prayers are to men as dolls are to children.”

“[P]oetry resembles metaphysics: one does not mind one's own, but one does not like anyone else's.”

“Embryos think with each stage of their development that they have now reached the only condition that really suits them. This, they say, must certainly be their last, inasmuch as its close w...”

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

“So engrained in the human heart is the desire to believe that some people really do know what they say they know, and can thus save them from the trouble of thinking for themselves, that in...”

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

“Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.”

“Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.”

“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.”

“Priests are not men of the world; it is not intended that they should be; and a University training is the one best adapted to prevent their becoming so.”

“Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.”