Samuel Butler

Logic is like the sword

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

People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.

Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket, and the older he grows, the more things will he promptly consign to it.

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.

Be not the slave of your own past – plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.

There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into power.

We are not victims of aging, sickness and death. These are part of scenery, not the seer, who is immune to any form of change. This seer is the spirit, the expression of eternal being.

If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are … a different game you should play.

Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

It’s not whether you get knocked down, its whether you get back up.

I desire to gain your Love and Friendship by a kind, Just and Peaceful Life.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force.

Then spare the rod and spoil the child.