Samuel Butler

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.

It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of respectable parents.

Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.

A physician’s physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric’s divinity has to his power of influencing conduct.

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.

The lawyer’s truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.

When in doubt tell the truth.

Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.

Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth

It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.

If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

All truth is not to be told at all times.

For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I’m looking for the truth.’ and so it goes away. Puzzling.