Samuel Butler

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

Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.

Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

Though analogy is often misleading, it is the least misleading thing we have.

The money men make lives after them.

Depriving the oppressed of a beacon of hope could lose us the world we have built and thrived in. It could cost our reputation in history as the nation distinct from all others in our achievements, our identity, and our enduring influence on mankind. Our values are central to all three.

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.

It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourselves.

I have had to learn that my voice has value. And if I don’t use it, what’s the point of being in the room?

Every mind has a choice between truth and repose. Take which you please you can never have both.

A portion of mankind take pride in their vices and pursue their purpose; many more waver between doing what is right and complying with what is wrong.

It is not where you start but how high you aim that matters for success.

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.

All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.

I’m not a teacher: only a fellow-traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead – ahead of myself as well as you.

Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run. Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

We are armed with language adequate to describe each leaf of the filed, but not to describe human character.