Samuel Butler

Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity?

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

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

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

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.

In law, nothing is certain but the expense.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.

I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people.

Glances of true beauty can be seen in the faces of those who live in true meekness.

Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.

The intuitive recognition of the instant, thus reality… is the highest act of wisdom.

Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats.

You cannot run faster than a bullet.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different because they want to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we let them make slaves of our bodies.

Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.

The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.

The greatest homage we can pay truth is to use it.

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.

When a man is just and firm in his purpose, the citizens burning to approve a wrong or the frowning looks of a tyrant. Do not shake his fixed mind, nor the Southwind. Wild lord of the uneasy Adriatic, nor the thunder in the mighty hand of Jove: Should the heavens crack and tumble down, as the ruins crushed him he would not fear.