Quotes by Samuel Butler

The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

— Samuel Butler

Success

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

— Samuel Butler

Happiness

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.

— Samuel Butler

Friendship

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

— Samuel Butler

Life

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

Life is one long process of getting tired.

— Samuel Butler

Life

Life is not an exact science, it is an art.

— Samuel Butler

Education

Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.

— Samuel Butler

Life

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.

— Samuel Butler

Life

Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

— Samuel Butler

Education

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

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

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.

— Samuel Butler

Courage

Nobody shoots at Santa Claus.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy.

— Samuel Butler

Happiness

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom

It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.

— Samuel Butler

Wisdom