Samuel Butler quote: "I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart's Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from Parsifal which I disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes..."

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

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

For most men, and most circumstances, pleasure --tangible material prosperity in this world --is the...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The money men make lives after them.
SAMUEL BUTLER

The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.
SAMUEL BUTLER

A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game; true as a dial to the sun, although it b...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Every one is a genius, more or less. No one is so physically sound that no part of him will be even ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not bein...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

It is immoral to get drunk because the headache comes after the drinking, but if the headache came f...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Such as take lodgings in a head that's to be let unfurnished.
SAMUEL BUTLER

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.
SAMUEL BUTLER

He that complies against his will, Is of his own opinion still.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Spontaneity is only a term for man's ignorance of the gods
SAMUEL BUTLER

To be at all is to be religious more or less
SAMUEL BUTLER

One who is proud of ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is underg...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.
SAMUEL BUTLER

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
SAMUEL BUTLER

All philosophies, if you ride them, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.
SAMUEL BUTLER

There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, i...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

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

Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ h...
SAMUEL BUTLER

A physician's physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric's di...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next w...
SAMUEL BUTLER

It has, I believe, been often remarked that a hen is only an egg's way of making another egg
SAMUEL BUTLER

The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation
SAMUEL BUTLER

He knew what's what, and that's as high As metaphysics wit can fly
SAMUEL BUTLER

There is a photographer in every bush, going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Genius is a nuisance, and it is the duty of schools and colleges to abate it by setting genius-traps...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Cleanliness is almost as bad as godliness
SAMUEL BUTLER

For things said false and never meant, Do oft prove true by accident
SAMUEL BUTLER

And like a lobster boiled, the morn From black to red began to turn
SAMUEL BUTLER

We all love best not those who offend us least, nor those who have done most for us, but those who m...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The advantage of doing one's praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

To swallow gudgeons ere they're catched, And count their chickens ere they're hatched
SAMUEL BUTLER

If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes
SAMUEL BUTLER

People are lucky and unlucky...according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

I believe that more unhappiness comes from this source than from any other - I mean from the attempt...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes
SAMUEL BUTLER

What makes all doctrines plain and clear?/ About two hundred pounds a year.
SAMUEL BUTLER

A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

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

Though wisdom cannot be gotten with gold, still less can it be gotten without it.
SAMUEL BUTLER

A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, 'Can he name a...
SAMUEL BUTLER

I'll make the fur / Fly round the ears of the old cur.
SAMUEL BUTLER

An open mind is all very well in its way, but it ought not to be so open that there is no keeping an...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The wish to spread those opinions that we hold conducive to our own welfare is so deeply rooted in ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.
SAMUEL BUTLER

The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.
SAMUEL BUTLER

The advantage of doing one's praising to oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in t...
SAMUEL BUTLER

A lawyers dream of heaven; every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to r...
SAMUEL BUTLER

If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wa...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.
SAMUEL BUTLER

We all like to forgive, and love best not those who offend us least, nor who have done most for us, ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be b...
SAMUEL BUTLER

There is but one step from the Academy to the Fad.
SAMUEL BUTLER

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Life is one long process of getting tired.
SAMUEL BUTLER

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Silence is not always tact, but it is tact that is golden, not silence.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. A...
SAMUEL BUTLER

I believe that he was really sorry that people would not believe he was sorry that he was not more s...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Life, they urge, would be intolerable if men were to be guided in all they did by reason and reason ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The public do not know enough to be experts, but know enough to decide between them.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism.
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

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

It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as tr...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Neither have they hearts to stay. Nor wit enough to run away.
SAMUEL BUTLER

For Wealth are all things that conduce, to one's destruction or their use. A standard both to buy an...
SAMUEL BUTLER

All progress is based on a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being good, clever, or amiable.
SAMUEL BUTLER

It does not matter much what a man hates provided he hates something.
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Logic is like the sword: those who appeal to it shall perish by it.
SAMUEL BUTLER

He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most; God will take care that we do not enjoy it any m...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that yo...
SAMUEL BUTLER

A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and...
SAMUEL BUTLER

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Quoth Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast Outrun the constable at last
SAMUEL BUTLER

It has been said that though God cannot alter the past, historians can; it is perhaps because they c...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes
SAMUEL BUTLER

When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at onc...
SAMUEL BUTLER

To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is no...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The history of art is the history of revivals
SAMUEL BUTLER

I am the enfant terrible of literature and science
SAMUEL BUTLER

Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both
SAMUEL BUTLER

The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next w...
SAMUEL BUTLER

It has, I believe, been often remarked that a hen is only an egg's way of making another egg
SAMUEL BUTLER

People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and seeing it pra...
SAMUEL BUTLER

There is a photographer in every bush, going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour
SAMUEL BUTLER

Genius is a nuisance, and it is the duty of schools and colleges to abate it by setting genius-traps...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Besides 'tis known he could speak Greek, As naturally as pigs squeak
SAMUEL BUTLER

There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Quoth Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast Outrun the constable at last
SAMUEL BUTLER

The advantage of doing one's praising to oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in t...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Still amorous, and fond, and billing, / Like Philip and Mary on a shilling.
SAMUEL BUTLER

That vice pays homage to virtue is notorious; we call it hypocrisy
SAMUEL BUTLER

It has been said that although God cannot alter the past, historians can --it is perhaps because the...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Oaths are but words, and words are but wind.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we have got to...
SAMUEL BUTLER

There are two great rules in life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Money is the last enemy that shall never be subdued. While there is flesh there is money or the want...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Eating is touch carried to the bitter end.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.
SAMUEL BUTLER

People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy.
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

A man's friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage -- but they are also no less invalid...
SAMUEL BUTLER

A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does...
SAMUEL BUTLER

When the righteous man truth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which...
SAMUEL BUTLER

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated...
SAMUEL BUTLER

It is tact that is golden, not silence.
SAMUEL BUTLER

There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

In matrimony, to hesitate is sometimes to be saved.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Compound for sins they are inclined to by damning those they have no mind to.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as h...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Logic is like the sword
SAMUEL BUTLER

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond it...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it.
SAMUEL BUTLER

If there is any moral in Christianity, if there is anything to be learned from it, if the whole stor...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Life is the art of drawing sufficent conclusions from insufficient premises.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Independence is essential for permanent but fatal to immediate success.
SAMUEL BUTLER

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Silence is not always tact, and it is tact that is golden, not silence.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.
SAMUEL BUTLER

If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised t...
SAMUEL BUTLER

I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a tr...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in th...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it.
SAMUEL BUTLER

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case; God ha...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty.
SAMUEL BUTLER

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has wri...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Then he saw also that it matters little what profession, whether of religion or irreligion, a man ma...
SAMUEL BUTLER

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficaci...
SAMUEL BUTLER

We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms.
SAMUEL BUTLER

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or a...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them.
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.
SAMUEL BUTLER

God cannot alter the past, that is why he is obliged to connive at the existence of historians
SAMUEL BUTLER

To swallow gudgeons ere they're catched, And count their chickens ere they're hatched
SAMUEL BUTLER

People are lucky and unlucky...according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jur...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The dons of Oxford and Cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anyth...
SAMUEL BUTLER

In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfyin...
SAMUEL BUTLER

It has been said that though God cannot alter the past, historians can; it is perhaps because they c...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat; Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble...
SAMUEL BUTLER

If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall long be surprised to fi...
SAMUEL BUTLER

We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to them.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883 The New Jerusalem, when it comes, will probab...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may -make a fool of yourself with him and not only will ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear i...
SAMUEL BUTLER

The mistakes made by doctors are innumerable. They err habitually on the side of optimism as to trea...
SAMUEL BUTLER

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek lon...
SAMUEL BUTLER

For every why he had a wherefore
SAMUEL BUTLER

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.
SAMUEL BUTLER

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes...
SAMUEL BUTLER

God and the Devil are an effort after specialization and the division of labor.
SAMUEL BUTLER

Silence and tact may or may not be the same thing.
SAMUEL BUTLER

We are not won by arguments that we can analyze but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the m...
SAMUEL BUTLER

To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he ...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely re...
SAMUEL BUTLER

Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and des...
SAMUEL BUTLER

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

I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart's Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from Parsifal which I disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes...

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Samuel Butler

I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart's Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from Parsifal which I disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes...

Samuel Butler

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