Samuel Butler

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.

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

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.

There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.

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.

From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author.

The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.

We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

No one has a prosperity so high and firm that two or three words can’t dishearten it.

The soul’s emphasis is always right.

To himself everyone is an immortal. He may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.

Remember where you came from.

Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.

Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.

It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.