Samuel Butler

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

We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the man himself.

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.

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.

I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart’s Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from Parsifal which I disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes…

There is but one step from the Academy to the Fad.

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it.

My religion? Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

Without a rich heart, wealth is an ugly beggar.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change thing I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

Very learned women are to be found, in the same manner as female warriors; but they are seldom or ever inventors.

Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.

Every wall is a door.

The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.

The greatest evils and the worst of crimes is poverty; our first duty, a duty to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor.

Haste makes Work which Caution prevents.

If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.

So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.