Samuel Butler

Those who have never had a father can at any rate never know the sweets of losing one. To most men the death of his father is a new lease of life.

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

Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one.

If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.

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

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

Every mind has a choice between truth and repose. Take which you please you can never have both.

For knowledge itself is power.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

You will find only what you bring in.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Language is the dress of thought.

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?

Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough.

The virtue in most request is conformity.

Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

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.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap; it is made difficult because freedom is the accomplishment and perfectness of man.

Any experience of reality is indescribable!