Samuel Butler

Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.

What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer liveth.

The only living works are those which have drained much of the author’s own life into them.

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.

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

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.

Not only higher forms of life but also many of the smallest insects are social beings who, without any religion, law or education, survive by mutual cooperation based on an innate recognition of their interconnectedness.

No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

The greatest impurity is ignorance. Free yourself from it. Be pure.

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

The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is.

Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

I love learning about different religions, and discovering the different ways to worship, and to love the greatness and the higher being that surrounds us all. I definitely believe in a bigger presence, and I really respect all religions; at their core they all teach the same message – community and kindness and looking out for each other.

Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.

Remembering a wrong is like carrying a burden on the mind.

A cult is a religion with no political power.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.