Samuel Butler

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

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.

Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and professional truth-tellers. The world is an attempt to make the best of Heaven and Hell.

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science.

I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart’s Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I heard an extract from Parsifal which I disliked very much. If Bach wriggles, Wagner writhes…

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Amuse not thy self therefore with the numerous Opinions of the World, nor value thy self upon verbal Orthodoxy, Philosophy, or thy Skill in Tongues, or Knowledge of the Fathers; (too much the Business and Vanity of the World). But in this rejoyce, That thou knowest God, that is the Lord, who exerciseth loving Kindness, and Judgment; and Righteousness in the Earth.

By persisting in your path, though you forfeit the little, you gain the great.

Wherever there is power there is age.

The people are to be taken in small doses.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ is a snivelling modern invention, with no warrant in the gospels.

Doing as others told me, I was blind. Coming when others called me, I was lost. Then I left everyone, myself as well. Then I found myself, myself as well.

The city is recruited from the country.

I often think that men don’t understand what is noble and what is ignorant, though they always talk about it.

Depriving the oppressed of a beacon of hope could lose us the world we have built and thrived in. It could cost our reputation in history as the nation distinct from all others in our achievements, our identity, and our enduring influence on mankind. Our values are central to all three.

The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is.

Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.

A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.