English novelist, essayist & critic (1835-1902)
The most perfect humour and irony is generally quite unconscious.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Life and Habit
The history of art is the history of revivals.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Note Books
Very useless things we neglect, till they become old and useless enough to be put in Museums: and so very important things we study till, when they become important enough, we ignore them -- and rightly.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Notebooks
An honest God's the noblest work of man.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Further Extracts from the Note Books
An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case. God has written all the books.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Note Books
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Note Books
Life is one long process of getting tired.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Note Books
Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Notebooks
Many, if not most, good ideas die young -- mainly from neglect on the part of the parents, but sometimes from over-fondness. Once well started, an opinion had better be left to shift for itself.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Notebooks
God is Love, I dare say. But what a mischievous devil Love is.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Note Books
Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers. Cannibalism is moral in a cannibal country.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Note books
The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you 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
Notebooks
Entertaining angels unawares: It is always we who are to entertain the angels, and never they us. I cannot, however, think that an angel would be a very entertaining person, either as guest or host.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Notebooks
'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have lost at all.
SAMUEL BUTLER
The Way of All Flesh
The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Note Books
Logic is like the sword--those who appeal to it shall perish by it.
SAMUEL BUTLER
The Notebooks of Samuel Butler
Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Notebooks
One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Samuel Butler's Notebooks
He who would propagate an opinion must begin by making sure of his ground and holding it firmly. There is as little use in trying to breed from weak opinion as from other weak stock.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Notebooks
Theist and Atheist: The fight between them is as to whether God shall be called God or shall have some other name.
SAMUEL BUTLER
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler