Samuel Butler

When the righteous man truth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which is neither quite lawful nor quite right, he will generally be found to have gained in amiability what he has lost in holiness.

A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand.

Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one.

What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer liveth.

The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.

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.

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.

Discern of the coming on of years, and think not to do the same things still; for age will not be defied.

Wherever there is power there is age.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

You can free yourself from aging by reinterpreting your body and by grasping the link between belief and biology.

Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you who you’ll turn out to be.

There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one – keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy.

Men are what their mothers made them.

My chief want in life is someone who shall make me do what I can.

A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil that good may come of it.

Hurricanes are named after people, baby, and I hope you know that falling in love with me will be so much more treacherous than boarding up the windows and waiting for me to pass.

One thing you learn: if you want to reveal yourself, you also have to know where to stop.

It is a brave thing to have courage to be an individual; it is also, perhaps, a lonely thing. But it is better than not being an individual, which is to be nobody at all.

Man was born to be rich, or grow rich by use of his faculties, by the union of thought with nature. Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players.

There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.