Samuel Butler

If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention to him.

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.

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

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

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

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

Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run. Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

Looking? Found someone you have, eh?

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

Branching streams cannot compare to the source.

The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

The jealous are troublesome to others, but torment to themselves.

Virtue is too often merely local.

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it.

I do not like work even when someone else does it.

Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Guilt, regret, resentment, sadness and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past and not enough presence.

Covetousness is the greatest of monsters, as well as the root of all evil.