Samuel Butler

Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.

If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention 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.

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.

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.

Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.

Why do the words I want to say, struggle to come out of my mouth. Why does fear have such a grip over me. I shouldn’t have to battle to say all the complimentary things I so desperately want to share. It shouldn’t be this hard, that I have to force myself; it’s wrong that such loving words, should have to be spoken under such duress. I’m aware of how wrong it is, but withholding is all I have known, even though I desire so badly to share my thoughts and feelings with you, as freely as you do with me.

Give a man health and a course to steer, and he’ll never stop to trouble about whether he’s happy or not.

It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.

If thou wouldn’t conquer thy weakness thou must not gratify it.

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.

Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size.

No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government.

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.

Men’s men: gentle or simple, they’re much of a muchness.

There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.

Sympathetic people often don’t communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths.