Quotes By Samuel Butler

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

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.

If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success.

Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.

If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good deal less sorrow in the world a hundred years hence.

A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

Is life worth living? This is a question for an embryo not for a man.

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

In law, nothing is certain but the expense.

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

We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

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

Logic is like the sword - those who appeal to it, shall perish by it.

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.

Be virtuous and you will be vicious.

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

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

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

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

A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war.

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.

Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficacious I do not know.

If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue.

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

The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.

To know God better is only to realize how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish to deny him, or define him.

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