Samuel Butler

An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among our old ones. We should have patience and see whether the incoherency is likely to wear off or to wear on, in which latter case the sooner we get rid of them the better.

There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can, in the end get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less an exception to the general rule.

When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.

When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through either the berry of a grape, or else a tub of malt. These are the most reliable filters yet invented.

The history of art is the history of revivals.

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.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

A wise man makes what he learns his own, the other shows he is but a copy or a collection at most.

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It’s like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won’t fatten the dog.

A man’s interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself.

Poetry must be as new as foam and as old as the rock.

We do not quite forgive a giver. The hand that feeds us is in some danger of being bitten.

When one has tasted it Watermelon he knows what the angels eat.

Part of her mystery is how she is calm in the storm and anxious in the quiet.

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.