Samuel Butler

The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.

I believe that he was really sorry that people would not believe he was sorry that he was not more sorry.

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.

Christ: I dislike him very much. Still, I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band of people whose profession is to hoodwink us about him.

There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.

The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.

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

The truth knocks on the door and you say, Go away, I’m looking for the truth, and so it goes away. Puzzling.

The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self.

Truth emerges more readily from error than from confusion.

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

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

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.

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

I have such a high regard for the truth that I use it sparingly.

The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless.

The honest truth is that every day was new, every day was a challenge, every day was starting from a fresh place, and as time went on, over the course of about two years, things became better and better. But I don’t think that there was for me anything like, ‘Ah, this is taking too long’, because ‘long’ didn’t exist. So I see it as a blessing. I have to laugh. I mean there’s no other way to look at it.

Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.

It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to standing upon the vantage ground of truth… and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below.

To tell the truth is very difficult, and young people are rarely capable of it.

Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish your opinions.