Samuel Butler

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.

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.

Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it.

If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.

God cannot alter the past, but historians can.

Man is God’s highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.

If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.

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

The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic. There is always a reason, in the man, for his good or bad fortune in making money. Men talk as if there were some magic about this. He knows that all goes on the old road, pound for pound, cent for cent – for every effect a perfect cause – and that good luck is another name for tenacity of purpose.

Mysteries are due to secrecy.

The most anxious man in a prison is the governor.

I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship.

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

Wit and Humor – if any difference, it is in duration – lightning and electric light. Same material, apparently; but one is vivid, and can do damage – the other fools along and enjoys elaboration.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.

Youth is unduly busy with pampering the outer person.

Just do what works for you, because there will always be someone who think diffenrently…