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.
Samuel Butler
Related All animals except man know that the ultimate point of life is to enjoy it. -Samuel Butler. SAMUEL BUTLER He's keen to show what he can do, he's done enough to suggest it will be well worth having a look at... STUART PEARCE The worth of a person’s quote is in his or her heart where it takes the birth and the value of the... ANUJ SOMANY Whereas economic man maximises, selects the best alternative from among all those available to him, ... HERBERT A. SIMON Give a bowl of rice to a man and you will feed him for a day. Teach him how to grow his own rice and... CONFUCIUS I am often asked how it is that I am able to value people to such a deep degree. Apparently, I exhib... C. JOYBELL C. God had a sense of humor, a style of his own. JACK MURPHY As far back as history records people thinking, thinking people
have been befuddled by the mysteries... LEWIS N. ROE A man of guilt acknowledges and changes himself immediately on being hinted slightly about his fault... ANUJ SOMANY ...in doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom. J.R.R. TOLKIEN He had the uneasy manner of a man who is not among his own kind, and who has not seen enough of the ... WILLA SIBERT CATHER Sins of ignorance or infirmity are to be admonished in a different way than intentional sins of mali... THOMAS C. ODEN This is very similar to the suggestion put forward by the Quirmian philosopher Ventre, who said, "Po... TERRY PRATCHETT Young girls today are very mistaken to be thinking that their sense of self-worth and their acknowle... C. JOYBELL C. I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show him... WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth. MARK VAN DOREN Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all ABRAHAM LINCOLN Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all. ABRAHAM LINCOLN I just want silence... nothing less... nothing more. DEYTH BANGER Life makes fools of us all sooner or later. But keep your sense of humor and you'll at least be able... PAUL MURRAY Unfortunately, she discovered too late that her unwritten list of desirable attributes was missing a... DELPHINE DRYDEN A man must serve his time to every trade / Save censure - critics all are ready made. / Take hackney... LORD BYRON You must save what you can of your life; you musn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part. HENRY JAMES Denzel Washington has a great sense of humor. He did all those 'Nutty Professor' movies. SETH MACFARLANE Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of mans superiority to all that befalls him. ROMAIN GARY The fools enjoy their pleasures; they must also endure all their pains. From pleasures, arise diseas... SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own... JOHN JOSEPH POWELL Let a man then know his worth, and keep things under his feet. Let him not peep or steal, or skulk u... RALPH WALDO EMERSON The man with the real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator's place and lau... BERT WILLIAMS Michael Pollan is a champion. In all ways. A man of great integrity, humor, and common sense and kin... MAIRA KALMAN Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all. ABRAHAM LINCOLN Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man's superiority to all that befalls him. ROMAIN GARY If a man possesses a repentant spirit his sins will disappear, but if he has an unrepentant spirit h... BUDDHA Keep your sense of humor. There's enough stress in the rest of your life to let bad shots ruin a gam... AMY STRUM ALCOTT Keep your sense of humor. There's enough stress in the rest of your life to let bad shots ruin a gam... AMY ALCOTT If this is so, why should any man bother about moral rules and regulations? Why should any man confo... H.L. MENCKEN The man with the real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the spectator's place and... BERT WILLIAMS So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frug... BENJAMIN FRANKLIN The show is geared towards people with a sense of humor. DANNY LIBERTO We are all different and we all have a different sense of humor. JOHN PATRICK HICKEY Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him f... FRANCIS BACON If God had bid you give them all your estates to own them, or lay down your lives to save them, sure... RICHARD BAXTER Life makes fools of all of us sooner or later. But keep your sense of humor and you'll at least be a... PAUL MURRAY Humor is our way of defending ourselves from life's absurdities by thinking absurdly about them. LEWIS MUMFORD A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerated ... BILLY GRAHAM A keen sense of humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the
unconventional, tolerate t... BILLY GRAHAM Feast of the Holy Cross Does not every man feel, that there is corruption enough within him to drive... CHARLES SIMEON Fuck you and them... I don't like this rules! DEYTH BANGER In all His acts God orders all things, whether good or evil, for the good of those who know Him and ... THOMAS MERTON I like the brooding man - a brooding man with a sense of humor. MAIRA KALMAN You've got to have a sense of humor to keep your sanity. LANCE BASS Let a man turn to his own childhood -- no further -- if he will renew his sense of remoteness, and o... ALICE MEYNELL Rossella, non ho mai avuto la pazienza di raccogliere i frammenti di un oggetto rotto per incollarli... MARGARET MITCHELL She wasn't bitter. She was sad, though. But it was a hopeful kind of sad. The kind of sad that just ... STEPHEN CHBOSKY So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even... STEPHEN CHBOSKY I love my mom so much. I don't care if that's corny to say. I think on my next birthday, I'm going t... STEPHEN CHBOSKY We Are All Infinite STEPHEN CHBOSKY (All the grief she had suffered over her lifetime had moulded her face into a mask of eternal sadnes... JEAN SASSON You can't just sit there and put everyone's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You ... STEPHEN CHBOSKY I saw other people there. Old men sitting alone. Young girls with blue eye shadow and awkward jaws. ... STEPHEN CHBOSKY That one moment when you know you are not a sad story. You are ALIVE. STEPHAN CHBOSKY Somos quienes somos por un montón de razones.Quizás nunca conozcamos la mayoría de ellas.Pero aun... STEPHEN CHBOSKY Ambos dijeron que tomara asiento y parecían hablar en serio, así que me senté. STEPHEN CHBOSKY I know these will all be stories some day, and our pictures will become old photographs. We all beco... STEPHEN CHBOSKY So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybewe'll never know most of them. STEPHEN CHBOSKY So I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. STEPHEN CHBOSKY There's nothing like the deep breathes after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore st... STHEPHEN CHBOSKY no more pencils, no more books, no more teachers' dirty looks, when the teacher rings the bell, drop... STEPHEN CHBOSKY I don't know the significance of this, but I find it very interesting. STEPHEN CHBOSKY Maybe it’s sad that these are now memories. And maybe it’s not sad. STEPHEN CHBOSKY The role of the
Christian is to let other people know what Jesus has done, not to
think of themselve... LEWIS N. ROE Naturalistic atheism debunks itself. It
has no power to explain even some
of the most basic principl... LEWIS N. ROE It's important to understand that if
someone calls themselves a Christian, it does not automatically... LEWIS N. ROE Keep your sense of humor. As General Joe Stillwell said, "The higher a monkey climbs, the more you s... DONALD RUMSFELD And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. BIBLE Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him... FRANCIS BACON Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him ... FRANCIS BACON, SR. Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him f... FRANCIS BACON SR. There is this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him... RALPH WALDO EMERSON A sense of humor is the only divine quality of man ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER Galeni made her smile but not laugh. The lack of any sense of play between them worried Miles; you h... LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD The scientific method gives us
information by testing and repeating observable things so that we
can... LEWIS N. ROE They're sensational! HARRY STYLES If need is the mother of all inventions, then curiosity is its genetic father undoubtedly. ANUJ SOMANY While majority find business in berating the spoilt brat “Problem” for distressing and disturbin... ANUJ SOMANY To be Thankful to someone who has helped change your life for ever is a small consolation for what t... GARY F EVANS... I need to learn bigger words and do those (things). GREAT APE One of the most important things I have found is that no one
school of thought has all of the answer... LEWIS N. ROE George Burley was very keen to keep him as he regards him as an integral part of his side. GEORGE FOULKES For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glor... SAMUEL BUTLER (1) Knowing that his past actions may try to overwhelm him, the devotee must be prepared to combat them.... SWAMI BRAHMANADA Show me a man who knows his own heart and to him i shall belong. JEWEL All sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority, otherwise called ambition. CESARE PAVESE All sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority otherwise called ambition. CESARE PAVESE He just never lost his optimism or sense of humor. JANICE MOHR To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive... BIBLE All great leaders find a sense of balance through their levels of reception. For instance, those who... CRISS JAMI Humility is the nearly impossible task of being more concerned with our own sins that we are with th... TREVOR HAMMACK Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn't. A sense of humor was provided to c... HORACE WALPOLE He had the uneasy manner of a man who is not among his own kind, and who has not seen enought of the... WILLA CATHER
More Samuel Butler
People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio b... SAMUEL BUTLER Logic is like the sword - those who appeal to it, shall perish by it. SAMUEL BUTLER To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it. SAMUEL BUTLER If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success. SAMUEL BUTLER The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them. SAMUEL BUTLER Self-preservation is the first law of nature. SAMUEL BUTLER A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg. SAMUEL BUTLER Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. SAMUEL BUTLER The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance. SAMUEL BUTLER When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to di... SAMUEL BUTLER The dons of Oxford and Cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anyth... SAMUEL BUTLER Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them ... SAMUEL BUTLER Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. SAMUEL BUTLER The advantage of doing one's praising to oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in t... SAMUEL BUTLER I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart's Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I hea... SAMUEL BUTLER It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of r... SAMUEL BUTLER The money men make lives after them. SAMUEL BUTLER The want of money is the root of all evil. SAMUEL BUTLER All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. SAMUEL BUTLER For most men, and most circumstances, pleasure --tangible material prosperity in this world --is the... SAMUEL BUTLER A lawyers dream of heaven; every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to r... SAMUEL BUTLER In law, nothing is certain but the expense. SAMUEL BUTLER People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is one long process of getting tired. SAMUEL BUTLER Is life worth living? This is a question for an embryo not for a man. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. SAMUEL BUTLER A man's friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage -- but they are also no less invalid... SAMUEL BUTLER A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does... SAMUEL BUTLER When the righteous man truth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which... SAMUEL BUTLER It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all. SAMUEL BUTLER Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance. SAMUEL BUTLER The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them. SAMUEL BUTLER Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him. SAMUEL BUTLER We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the... SAMUEL BUTLER Neither irony or sarcasm is argument. SAMUEL BUTLER Because they did not see merit where they should have seen it, people, to express their regret, will... SAMUEL BUTLER There is but one step from the Academy to the Fad. SAMUEL BUTLER The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way. SAMUEL BUTLER I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy. SAMUEL BUTLER Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging h... SAMUEL BUTLER Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. SAMUEL BUTLER To die is but to leave off dying and do the thing once for all. SAMUEL BUTLER The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the... SAMUEL BUTLER There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death. SAMUEL BUTLER What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer l... SAMUEL BUTLER You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it. SAMUEL BUTLER Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be b... SAMUEL BUTLER Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God. SAMUEL BUTLER If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wa... SAMUEL BUTLER We all like to forgive, and love best not those who offend us least, nor who have done most for us, ... SAMUEL BUTLER There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon. SAMUEL BUTLER Eating is touch carried to the bitter end. SAMUEL BUTLER The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions. SAMUEL BUTLER Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so. SAMUEL BUTLER Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. A... SAMUEL BUTLER There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every... SAMUEL BUTLER I believe that he was really sorry that people would not believe he was sorry that he was not more s... SAMUEL BUTLER Life, they urge, would be intolerable if men were to be guided in all they did by reason and reason ... SAMUEL BUTLER If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason. SAMUEL BUTLER The public do not know enough to be experts, but know enough to decide between them. SAMUEL BUTLER In matrimony, to hesitate is sometimes to be saved. SAMUEL BUTLER It is tact that is golden, not silence. SAMUEL BUTLER Silence is not always tact, but it is tact that is golden, not silence. SAMUEL BUTLER All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others. SAMUEL BUTLER From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right. SAMUEL BUTLER Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children. SAMUEL BUTLER When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through eithe... SAMUEL BUTLER Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated... SAMUEL BUTLER The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds. SAMUEL BUTLER The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religi... SAMUEL BUTLER A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind ... SAMUEL BUTLER Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. SAMUEL BUTLER The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to ap... SAMUEL BUTLER Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game; true as a dial to the sun, although it b... SAMUEL BUTLER One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fightin... SAMUEL BUTLER Logic is like the sword SAMUEL BUTLER All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond it... SAMUEL BUTLER Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket, and the older he grows, the more things will he pro... SAMUEL BUTLER The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday. SAMUEL BUTLER He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. God will take care that we do not enjoy it any m... SAMUEL BUTLER A hen is only a egg's way of making another egg. SAMUEL BUTLER To himself everyone is an immortal. He may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that ... SAMUEL BUTLER I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obl... SAMUEL BUTLER The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is ... SAMUEL BUTLER Opinions have vested interests just as men have. SAMUEL BUTLER The world will only, in the end, follow those who have despised as well as served it. SAMUEL BUTLER Compound for sins they are inclined to by damning those they have no mind to. SAMUEL BUTLER The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he no... SAMUEL BUTLER A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war. SAMUEL BUTLER Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away. SAMUEL BUTLER Every one is a genius, more or less. No one is so physically sound that no part of him will be even ... SAMUEL BUTLER A genius can never expect to have a good time anywhere, if he is a genuine article, but America is a... SAMUEL BUTLER God cannot alter the past, but historians can. SAMUEL BUTLER Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and pro... SAMUEL BUTLER Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as h... SAMUEL BUTLER Those who have never had a father can at any rate never know the sweets of losing one. To most men t... SAMUEL BUTLER For every why he had a wherefore. SAMUEL BUTLER Then spare the rod and spoil the child. SAMUEL BUTLER People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it ... SAMUEL BUTLER If there is any moral in Christianity, if there is anything to be learned from it, if the whole stor... SAMUEL BUTLER Such as take lodgings in a head that's to be let unfurnished. SAMUEL BUTLER An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when intr... SAMUEL BUTLER Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions. SAMUEL BUTLER The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore. SAMUEL BUTLER Birth and death are so closely related that one could not destroy either without destroying the othe... SAMUEL BUTLER It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy -- but he who has s... SAMUEL BUTLER Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he... SAMUEL BUTLER It is immoral to get drunk because the headache comes after the drinking, but if the headache came f... SAMUEL BUTLER He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still. SAMUEL BUTLER Science, after all, is only an expression for our ignorance of our own ignorance. SAMUEL BUTLER A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not se... SAMUEL BUTLER The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not bein... SAMUEL BUTLER The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. SAMUEL BUTLER The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them. SAMUEL BUTLER Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it. SAMUEL BUTLER Union may be strength, but it is mere blind brute strength unless wisely directed. SAMUEL BUTLER The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. SAMUEL BUTLER The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds. SAMUEL BUTLER He that complies against his will, Is of his own opinion still. SAMUEL BUTLER Spontaneity is only a term for man's ignorance of the gods SAMUEL BUTLER To be at all is to be religious more or less SAMUEL BUTLER Logic is like the sword--those who appeal to it shall perish by it. SAMUEL BUTLER The extremes of glory and of shame, Like east and west, become the same No Indian prince has to his ... SAMUEL BUTLER One who is proud of ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is underg... SAMUEL BUTLER A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to ... SAMUEL BUTLER The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule. SAMUEL BUTLER We payt a person the complement of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is the art of drawing sufficent conclusions from insufficient premises. SAMUEL BUTLER 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all. SAMUEL BUTLER Independence is essential for permanent but fatal to immediate success. SAMUEL BUTLER All animals except man know that the ultimate point of life is to enjoy it. -Samuel Butler. SAMUEL BUTLER The truest characters of ignorance are vanity, and pride and arrogance. SAMUEL BUTLER The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, but the unreasonable man tries to adapt the world to... SAMUEL BUTLER 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. SAMUEL BUTLER Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. SAMUEL BUTLER Silence is not always tact, and it is tact that is golden, not silence. SAMUEL BUTLER Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature. SAMUEL BUTLER When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once. SAMUEL BUTLER Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds... SAMUEL BUTLER All philosophies, if you ride them, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others. SAMUEL BUTLER Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it. SAMUEL BUTLER Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and des... SAMUEL BUTLER People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or a... SAMUEL BUTLER God cannot alter the past, though historians can. SAMUEL BUTLER Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything els... SAMUEL BUTLER Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character. SAMUEL BUTLER The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that yo... SAMUEL BUTLER We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms. SAMUEL BUTLER Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely re... SAMUEL BUTLER Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. SAMUEL BUTLER Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficaci... SAMUEL BUTLER Having, then, once introduced an element of inconsistency into his system, he was far too consistent... SAMUEL BUTLER We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the m... SAMUEL BUTLER Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ h... SAMUEL BUTLER A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing. SAMUEL BUTLER It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has sh... SAMUEL BUTLER A physician's physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric's di... SAMUEL BUTLER A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and... SAMUEL BUTLER In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfyin... SAMUEL BUTLER Words are clothes that thoughts wear SAMUEL BUTLER The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is SAMUEL BUTLER The three most important parts a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money and his religiou... SAMUEL BUTLER All progress is based on a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its ... SAMUEL BUTLER There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every... SAMUEL BUTLER People care more about being thought to have taste than about being good, clever, or amiable. SAMUEL BUTLER A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg. SAMUEL BUTLER It does not matter much what a man hates provided he hates something. SAMUEL BUTLER If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue. SAMUEL BUTLER Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. SAMUEL BUTLER Logic is like the sword: those who appeal to it shall perish by it. SAMUEL BUTLER An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has wri... SAMUEL BUTLER He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most; God will take care that we do not enjoy it any m... SAMUEL BUTLER Then he saw also that it matters little what profession, whether of religion or irreligion, a man ma... SAMUEL BUTLER All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it. SAMUEL BUTLER It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as tr... SAMUEL BUTLER Neither have they hearts to stay. Nor wit enough to run away. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises SAMUEL BUTLER If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised t... SAMUEL BUTLER I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill. SAMUEL BUTLER There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth. SAMUEL BUTLER For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine. SAMUEL BUTLER It is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mould our lives and th... SAMUEL BUTLER There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought. SAMUEL BUTLER Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a tr... SAMUEL BUTLER Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in th... SAMUEL BUTLER A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy. SAMUEL BUTLER Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it. SAMUEL BUTLER For Wealth are all things that conduce, to one's destruction or their use. A standard both to buy an... SAMUEL BUTLER Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness. SAMUEL BUTLER Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, i... SAMUEL BUTLER An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case; God ha... SAMUEL BUTLER The wish to spread those opinions that we hold conducive to our own welfare is so deeply rooted in ... SAMUEL BUTLER To swallow gudgeons ere they're catched, And count their chickens ere they're hatched SAMUEL BUTLER People are lucky and unlucky...according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been ... SAMUEL BUTLER Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat; Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate SAMUEL BUTLER