Samuel Butler

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

Christ: I dislike him very much. Still, I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band of people whose profession is to hoodwink us about him.

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.

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

If there is any moral in Christianity, if there is anything to be learned from it, if the whole story is not profitless from first to last, it comes to this: that a man should back his own opinion against the world s.

Which is it, is man one of God’s blunders or is God one of man’s?

To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

The practice of Zen is forgetting the self in the act of uniting with something.

Be kind to all creatures; this is the true religion.

God is a loving god.

The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.

Zen is not an art, it’s not a religion. It’s a realisation.

Zen mind is not Zen mind. Throwing away Zen mind is correct Zen mind.

The essence of Buddhism is, if you can, to help others. If not, then at least refrain from hurting others.

God cannot alter the past, but historians can.

Thou shalt not commit adultry is a command which makes no distinction between the following persons. They are all required to obey it: children at birth. Children in the cradle. School children. Youths and maidens. Fresh adults. Older ones. Men and women of 40. Of 50. Of 60. Of 70. Of 80. Of 100. The command does not distribute its burden equally, and cannot. It is not hard upon the three sets of children.

If something is easy for you, work on it a little. If it’s hard for you, work on it a lot.