Samuel Butler

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

Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.

A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.

Let us eat and drink neither forgetting death unduly nor remembering it. The Lord hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, etc., and the less we think about it the better.

The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.

For every why he had a wherefore.

When you place yourself in a position to help another, you will discover your greater capabilities.

Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Nothing is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.

If you have inner peace, nobody can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.

Sorrow makes us all children again, destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest knows nothing.

Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice…

A lucky person gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they’re about to do and thinks it still matters.

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

A home without a cat-and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat-may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?

Croesus said to Cambyses; That peace was better than war; because in peace the sons did bury their fathers, but in wars the fathers did bury their sons.

Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand — relax!

For death is no more than turning us over from time to eternity.