Samuel Butler

All truth is not to be told at all times.

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…

Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.

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

The history of art is the history of revivals.

Birth and death are so closely related that one could not destroy either without destroying the other at the same time. It is extinction that makes creation possible.

When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, ‘How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.

The ordinary mind is the way.

I was kosher until I had my Bar Mitzvah, and I parlayed officially becoming a man into telling my father I wanted to eat cheeseburgers.

When one person suffers from a delusion It is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion It is called Religion.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

If God would have wanted us to live in a permissive society He would have given us Ten Suggestions and not Ten Commandments.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.

Believe in something larger than yourself…get involved in the big ideas of your time.

A follower of the way has neither form nor shape, neither root nor trunk; nor dwelling place; like a fish leaping in the water.

I feel the presence of a higher power. I believe that what you give is what you get. It’s universal law. I believe in the power of prayer and of words. I’ve learned that when you predict that negative things will happen, they do.

It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.

God almighty first planted a garden: and, indeed, it is the purest of human pleasure.