Samuel Butler Quotes

Quotes about:

• Memory and forgetfulness are as life and death to one another. To live is to remember and to remember is to live. To die is to forget and to forget is to die.

  Samuel Butler

  Memories, Life And Death, Remember

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.83, The Floating Press

  5 Copy quote

• This world is like Noah's Ark.
  In which few men but many beasts embark.

  Samuel Butler

  Fear, Men, Atheism

  4 Copy quote

• Spare the rod and spoil the child.

  Samuel Butler

  Children, Punishment, Moments

  'Hudibras' pt. 2 (1664), canto 1, l. 843

  31 Copy quote

• To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead.

  Samuel Butler

  Death, Dying, Forget

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4372, Delphi Classics

  5 Copy quote

• Business should be like religion and science; it should know neither love nor hate.

  Samuel Butler

  Hate, Science, Should

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Notebooks: Selections Edited by Geoffrey Keynes and Brian Hill”

  4 Copy quote

• Prayers are to men as dolls are to children. They are not without use and comfort, but it is not easy to take them very seriously.

  Samuel Butler

  Prayer, Children, Men

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Comfort Edition”, p.23, ReadHowYouWant.com

  7 Copy quote

• When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through either the berry of a grape, or else a tub of malt. These are the most reliable filters yet invented.

  Samuel Butler

  Water, Filters, Berries

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.351, The Floating Press

  4 Copy quote

• Man, unlike the animals, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it.

  Samuel Butler

  Nature, Men, Animal

  5 Copy quote

• I fall asleep in the full and certain hope That my slumber shall not be broken; And that, though I be all-forgetting, Yet shall I not be all-forgotten, But continue that life in the thoughts and deeds of those I have loved.

  Samuel Butler

  Death, Prayer, Fall

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited”, p.260, Courier Dover Publications

  7 Copy quote

• It seems to be the fate of man to seek all his consolations in futurity. The time present is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.

  Samuel Butler

  Hope, Fate, Men

  5 Copy quote

• An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possessed with an error, it is, like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty.

  Samuel Butler

  Men, Errors, Devil

  5 Copy quote

• Friends are like money, easier made than kept.

  Samuel Butler

  Friendship, Easier, Made

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Samuel Butler's notebooks”

  4 Copy quote

• Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.

  Samuel Butler

  Home, Men, Fire

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.209, The Floating Press

  4 Copy quote

• The foundations which we would dig about and find are within us, like the kingdom of heaven, rather than without.

  Samuel Butler

  Heaven, Progress, Kingdoms

  Samuel Butler (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler (Illustrated)”, p.4093, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration at the time. True inspiration always steals on a person; its importance not being fully recognized for some time.

  Samuel Butler

  Inspirational, Stealing, Genuine

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.226, The Floating Press

  7 Copy quote

• Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

  Samuel Butler

  Time, Spring, Fall

  11 Copy quote

• When people talk of atoms obeying fixed laws, they are either ascribing some kind of intelligence and free will to atoms or they are talking nonsense. There is no obedience unless there is at any rate a potentiality of disobeying.

  Samuel Butler

  Science, Talking, Law

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition”, p.121, ReadHowYouWant.com

  9 Copy quote

• Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud.

  Samuel Butler

  Teacher, Appreciation, Flower

  67 Copy quote

• The public do not know enough to be experts, but know enough to decide between them.

  Samuel Butler

  Experts, Enough, Knows

  4 Copy quote

• There are two great rules of life; the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can, in the end, get what he wants, if he only tries. That is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is, more or less, an exception to the rule.

  Samuel Butler

  Two, Exception To The Rule, Trying

  6 Copy quote

• The course of true anything never does run smooth.

  Samuel Butler

  Uplifting, Running, Adversity

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Notebooks: Selections Edited by Geoffrey Keynes and Brian Hill”

  10 Copy quote

• Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

  Samuel Butler

  Wisdom, Truth, Lying

  Samuel Butler (2014). “The Notebooks of Samuel Butler”, p.377, The Floating Press

  7 Copy quote

• All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it - and they do enjoy it as much as man and other circumstances will allow.

  Samuel Butler

  Animal, Men, Humanity

  'The Way of All Flesh' (1903) ch. 19

  5 Copy quote

• The extremes of vice and virtue are alike detestable, and absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is.

  Samuel Butler

  Men, Vices, Virtue

  Samuel Butler (2008). “The Note-books of Samuel Butler: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.30, ReadHowYouWant.com

  6 Copy quote

• Flying. Whatever any other organism has been able to do man should surely be able to do also, though he may go a different way about it.

  Samuel Butler

  Airplane, Men, Flying

  Samuel Butler (1951). “Notebooks”

  6 Copy quote

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