Samuel Butler

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.

Logic is like the sword – those who appeal to it, shall perish by it.

Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since.

We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the man himself.

Because they did not see merit where they should have seen it, people, to express their regret, will go and leave a lot of money to the very people who will be the first to throw stones at the next person who has anything to say and finds a difficulty in getting a hearing.

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

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.

By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

It is not length of life, but depth of life.

Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.

A character is like an acrostic or Alexandrian stanza; read it forward, backward, or across, it still spells the same thing.

There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world.

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.

Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.