Samuel Butler

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

Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game; true as a dial to the sun, although it be not shined upon.

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.

Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. I you look at it to admire it, you are lost.

For every why he had a wherefore.

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

We are a puny and fickle folk. Avarice, hesitation, and following are our diseases.

I was a freethinker before I knew how to think.

For disappointments, that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of Heaven: and it is our own fault, if they prove not our advantage.

Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

We should always have three friends in our lives-one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.

Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection entertains a sacrifice. Our thoughts are often worse than we are, just as they are often better.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.

To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.

I don’t do quagmires.

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

Beauty without expression is boring.