Samuel Butler

A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide.

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

The only living works are those which have drained much of the author’s own life into them.

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.

When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

Find enough clever things to say, and you’re a Prime Minister; write them down and you’re a Shakespeare.

She stepped out barefoot on to the grass, her soul naked, sun beating to her heart’s rhythm, bathing her skin. In her mind, she had already escaped.

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

We live in an atmosphere of shame. We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap, than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

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.

Sir, I have found you an argument. I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

And all the while I thought I was drowning, I was actually the one holding my head under the water.

Culture is one thing and varnish is another.

As there is a use in medicine for poisons, so the world cannot move without rogues.

When you’ve got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.

If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.

There was the cell where Fr. Eulalio, a thriving lunatic of eighty-six who was castigating himself for unchristian pride at having all the vowels in his name, and greatly revered for his continuous weeping, went blind in an ecstasy of such howling proportions that his canonization was assured.