Samuel Butler

He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

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

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

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.

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…

Events tend to recur in cycles.

Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio and television and the Internet. To hell with them. They don’t want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.

Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

I cannot forgive a scholar his homeless despondency.

A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most. On Other Peoples Expectations: The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

I sit on a man’s back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that i am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible….except by getting off his back.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.

Men achieve a certain greatness unawares, when working to another aim.

How can one be well…when one suffers morally?

Worthless people love only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.