Samuel Butler

One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.

The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.

It is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mould our lives and the lives of those who spring from us.

A hen is only a egg’s way of making another egg.

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science.

A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.

I lost my faith in God when I lost my daughter to Cancer, the beast. I begged, I cried, I offered my life for hers, and day by day, I watched that beautiful little Angel slip off. So, excuse me for not taking my seat next to you on Sunday in Church, I feel too cheated to worship.

The valley stream’s rushing sound is the eloquent tongue of Buddha. The mountain’s vibrant colours are nothing but the Buddha’s form.

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.

In the end, only three things matter: How much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.

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.

To understand everything is to forgive everything.

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

The law of God, as quite plainly expressed in woman’s construction, is this: There shall be no limit put upon your intercourse with the other sex sexually, at any time of life. During twenty-three days in every month (in the absence of pregnancy) from the time a woman is seven years old till she dies of old age, she is ready for action, and competent. As competent as the candlestick is to receive the candle. Competent every day, competent every night. Also, she wants that candle – yearns for it, longs for it, hankers after it, as commanded by the law of God in her heart.

A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

Inspiring others towards happiness brings you happiness.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.