Samuel Butler

Because they did not see merit where they should have seen it, people, to express their regret, will go and leave a lot of money to the very people who will be the first to throw stones at the next person who has anything to say and finds a difficulty in getting a hearing.

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.

There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.

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

Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

Union may be strength, but it is mere blind brute strength unless wisely directed.

One farmer says to me, ‘You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;’ and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.

My favorite nightcap, after all this time, is still the cocktail of you.

The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor.

A vow is a snare for sin.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Words are alive; cut them and they bleed.

A private Life is to be preferred; the Honor and Gain of publick Posts, bearing no proportion with the Comfort of it

When we quarrel, how we wish we had been blameless.

If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.

So many fail because they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin.

Originality is a device that untalented people use to impress other untalented people to protect themselves from talented people…

There isn’t a single human characteristic that can be safely labeled as American.

Tomorrow is an old deceiver, and his cheat never grows stale.

You who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities and think long and hard on what your powers are equal to and what they are unable to perform.

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.