Samuel Butler

There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.

Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

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.

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy – but he who has shown the better temper.

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.

If you learn to practice love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, you will know how to heal the illnesses of anger, sorrow, insecurity, sadness, hatred, loneliness, and unhealthy attachments.

What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?

You don’t create things, you discover things.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

Never waste jealousy on a real man: it is the imaginary man that supplants us all in the long run.

Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.

New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody

Fatigue makes cowards of us all.

Trust instinct to the end, even though you can give no reason.

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

I was born upon thy bank, river, my blood flows in thy stream, and thou meanderest forever. At the bottom of my dream.

I teach that all men are mad.

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.