Samuel Butler

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

When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.

Man is God’s highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.

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

For most men, and most circumstances, pleasure –tangible material prosperity in this world -is the safest test of virtue. Progress has ever been through the pleasures rather than through the extreme sharp virtues, and the most virtuous have leaned to excess rather than to asceticism.

A man’s library is a sort of harem.

All personal achievement starts in the mind of the individual. Your personal achievement starts in your mind. The first step is to know exactly what your problem, goal or desire is.

As a thinker and planner the ant is the equal of any savage race of men; as a self-educated specialist in several arts she is the superior of any savage race of men; and in one or two high mental qualities she is above the reach of any man, savage or civilized!

I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.

The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

Each of us has the right and the responsibility to asses the road which lie ahead and those over which we have traveled, and if the feature road looms ominous or unpromising, and the road back uninviting-inviting, then we need to gather our resolve and carrying only the necessary baggage, step off that road into another direction. If the new choice is also unpalatable, without embarrassment, we must be ready to change that one as well.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.

It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and bad.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it.