Samuel Butler

A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war.

I really do not see much use in exalting the humble and meek; they do not remain humble and meek long when they are exalted.

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

God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch.

Science, after all, is only an expression for our ignorance of our own ignorance.

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt.

There must be what Mr. Gladstone many years ago called a blessed act of oblivion. We must all turn our backs upon the horrors of the past. We must look to the future. We cannot afford to drag forward across the years that are to come the hatreds and revenges which have sprung from the injuries of the past.

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

He was doing missionary work. But from the outset he had little success in convincing his charges of their responsibility for a sin committed at the beginning of creation, one which, as they understood it, they were ready and capable (indeed, they carried charms to assure it) of duplicating themselves. He did no better convincing them that a man had died on a tree to save them all: an act which one old Indian, if Gwyon had translated correctly, regarded as “rank presumption”.

Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being?

Justice delayed is justice denied.

You are a constant. Forever in my mind; forever in my heart. It seems that most matter how much I try I can’t get rid of you. You are a thorn, stuck in deep; painful to remove, and even when I do, still I’ll bleed and feel the soreness. It will take time, but it will heal. No matter the pain, I will still dare to pick roses.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

He walked out into the cold morning asking himself this heretical question: Can you start measuring a minute at any instant you wish?

The need for change bulldozed road down the center of my mind.

Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction.

Whether he knew it or not, the life he lived was his penance. Punishing himself, for what he believes are his sins. Consciously or subconsciously, he creates the world he lives in. Never believing that he is deserving happiness, deserving joy. His self-destructive nature, in his eyes, and his eyes only, is justified. Everyone is deserving absolution, but he needs to understand, that he is the only one able to forgive himself.

Different taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

We are prisoners of ideas.