Samuel Butler

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

The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not being a thief any more. Thieving is God’s message to him. Let him try and be a good thief.

A lawyers dream of heaven; every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.

A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those worth committing.

The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor.

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 if… everything you are going through is preparing you for what you asked for?

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

Sympathetic people often don’t communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths.

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

Wisdom is like electricity. There is no permanently wise man, but men capable of wisdom, who, being put into certain company, or other favorable conditions, become wise for a short time, as glasses rubbed acquire electric power for a while.

The more I see of the moneyed classes, the more I understand the guillotine.

We all really basically have a lot of magic … it’s only those of us that choose to accept it that really understand it.

The only secrets are the secrets that keep themselves.

There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrate to some stroke of the imagination.

I would rather have my ignorance than another man’s knowledge, because I have so much of it.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

Better see rightly on a pound a week than squint on a million.

Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est (Knowledge Itself Is Power)

No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.