It has been said that though God cannot alter the past, historians can; it is perhaps because they can be useful to Him in this respect that He tolerates their existence
Samuel Butler
Related It has been said that although God cannot alter the past, historians can --it is perhaps because the... SAMUEL BUTLER God cannot alter the past, though historians can. SAMUEL BUTLER God cannot alter the past, that is why he is obliged to connive at the existence of historians SAMUEL BUTLER God cannot alter the past, but historians can. SAMUEL BUTLER Or maybe they just accept that it's wrong in God's eyes, although not in their own, and they'll worr... CRAIG GROESCHEL Life is weird and wonderful like that, is it not. SONYA.E.WILLIAMS Now it would be as absurd to deny the existence of God, because we cannot see him, as it would be to... ADAM CLARKE Commemoration of Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers, 1913 & 1936 Evil can be interpret... EMIL BRUNNER The past, though it cannot be relived, can always be repaired. JOHN LA FARGE Yet he had been there longer and survived more turbulent times in this region perhaps is something t... BRIAN NKAROGO How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what... ERNEST HEMINGWAY All animals except man know that the ultimate point of life is to enjoy it. -Samuel Butler. SAMUEL BUTLER Arguments for atheism can be divided into two main categories: those that dispute the existence of g... CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS He is very special in the sense of what he has gone though. He has this inner drive, wherever it com... LARRY JOHNSON Perhaps it is because I'm a writer trained in history that I've always assumed I would make ... ALICE DREGER There is nothing that can be said by mathematical symbols and relations which cannot also be said by... CLIFFORD TRUESDELL To be in a time of technological change and advancement is an awesome thought indeed as long as it i... GARY F EVANS... While modern technology has given people powerful new communication tools, it apparently can do noth... LEO GOMES God cannot be referred to as 'good,' 'better,' or 'best' because He is above all things. If a man sa... ANDREW DAVIDSON It is perhaps not entirely so, though it has often been said, that man makes his God in his own imag... ERIC HOFFER There is nothing worse, is there," she said, "than a past that has never been fully dealt with. One ... MARY BALOGH I believe any question that man can ask has a reasonable answer-at least an answer that is as consis... JOHN CLAYTON We can know that the Christian God cannot exist. If he is all-powerful and all-good, as Christians m... VINCENT BUGLIOSI When it comes to believing in the important things in life (like love, hope, justice, peace) we have... JON MORRISON If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and the Bible is not from God, how can infidels explain ... J. C. RYLE Cease to think of an impossibility and you will seize an opportunity for productivity. Excellence co... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR For though to smatter ends of Greek
Or Latin be the rhetoric
Of pedants counted, and vain-glor... SAMUEL BUTLER (1) No one can find God without having first been found by Him. A monk is a man who seeks God because he... THOMAS MERTON Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380 He has loved us without being loved... We are b... CATHERINE OF SIENA Man can certainly flee from God... but he cannot escape him. He can certainly hate God and be hatefu... KARL BARTH Yes. The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference. That is why few people find God. They go ... CHRISTOPHER PIKE God has made the Universe and all that is in it, can He ever fail to give us anything that we ask of... JOCELYN SORIANO The thing that breaks the heart of God and makes him to cry out of frustration for his men and their... SUNDAY ADELAJA But I think that because they trusted themselves and respected themselves as individuals, because th... JOHN STEINBECK Success is a Journey: so, don’t forget to pack your COURAGE: to face the obstacles heading your wa... PHILIP T. M. The best that can be said for ritualistic legalism is that it improves conduct. It does little, howe... ALDOUS HUXLEY To the spiritual perplexity which exercised so many of the rarest souls of the nineteenth century, G... JOHN BAILLIE Be yourself, be who you can be. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA They have not forgotten the Mysteries,' she said, ‘they have found them too difficult. They want a... MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more... JAMES BALDWIN If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more... JAMES BALDWIN As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, i... ERICH FROMM As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, i... ERICH FROMM Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it. TS (THOMAS STEARNS) ELIOT Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it. T.S. ELIOT Only by acceptance of the past, can you alter it. T S ELIOT Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trus... THOMAS JEFFERSON Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be tru... THOMAS JEFFERSON This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to... EDWARD R. MURROW The virtue of angels is that they cannot deteriorate; their flaw is that they cannot improve. Man’... CASSANDRA CLARE There has been criticism of me from certain quarters among supporters and I can understand and respe... MICKY ADAMS It's critical that the manager has the respect of players so he can make the moves that he feels... DALE MURPHY It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recogni... JOHANN VON GOETHE If you believe that your destiny can be delayed, then it has been denied because he whom you believe... STEPHEN .R. ANYAEGBU It is argued that because they believed thoroughly in a just, moral God they could put there faith t... JOHN STEINBECK Writers are historians, too. It is in literature that the greater truths about a people and their pa... F. SIONIL JOSE Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can - that is their secret HERMANN HESSE Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can - that is their secret. HERMANN HESSE I can attest 100% that he is not gay. That's ridiculous that it even has to be said. CARMELLE DECESARE What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge tha... ANAïS NIN Even you can’t tell yourself how to change, because you didn’t create you. To love someone is to... JOHN ORTBERG If you can dream it, you can do it. ENZO FERRARI Do the thing and you will have the power. RALPH WALDO EMERSON I haven't seen a player in this game, as long as I've been in it, that can't be pitched to, ... Barr... FRANK ROBINSON You are an adult and you don't understand me and what are the differences between the adult and the ... DEYTH BANGER The best that can be said of my life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can b... MARIA MITCHELL He had a harder time helping her out though. He was asleep while she was doing stars. Without wings,... LAURIE FRANKEL It is an insult to God to believe in God. For on the one hand it is to suppose that he has perpetrat... GALEN STRAWSON Look at his track record. How does he do it? He just has an air about him. Players respect him. They... GAR HEARD You have to protect yourself from sadness. Sadness is very close to hate. Let me tell you this. This... MICHAEL ONDAATJE When they said my name, I said, 'There is no way I can go up here without sharing it with Rubin,' ..... DENZEL WASHINGTON This is my fundamental teaching: that there is no division between this and that. That is contained ... OSHO Art is elemental. Reason alone as it's expressed in the sciences can't be man's complete... POPE BENEDICT XVI Samuel said he didn't want to continue but we wanted to convince him that he should not let them (th... CARLES PUYOL Prayer does not alter that which God has determined; it never changes anything. It merely achieves w... WATCHMAN NEE And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do wh... BIBLE A public library is the most democratic thing in the world. What can be found there has undone dicta... DORIS LESSING The two men had a conversation. Brief, cryptic, to the point. As though they had exchanged numbers a... ARUNDHATI ROY If you can say it... it's obvious. DEYTH BANGER I've said this over the last several years: It can happen to anyone. It really can. I'm not immune t... BRETT FAVRE Your reality is as you perceive it to be. So, it is true, that by altering this perception we can al... WILIAM CONSTANTINE My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Some... FRANK HERBERT It is divine simplicity that enables Christians to meaningfully confess that God is most absolute in... JAMES E. DOLEZAL You are free to reject God. Make sure that you're really rejecting God, not some caricature of G... PHILIP YANCEY I can tell you that God is alive because I talked to him this morning. BILLY GRAHAM Though nihilism has been relentlessly criticized for overemphasizing the dark side of human experien... JOHN MARMYSZ That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, ... THOMAS PAINE That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, ... THOMAS PAINE In a sense it has been my way to transcendental experience: to the discovery that matter metaphorica... HUMBERTO R. MATURANA Is it then that they do not ponder over what is said, or is it that there has come to them that whic... QURAN God's existence needs to be established independently before he can be brought into account for caus... S.T. JOSHI Jerry Falwell said that the reason that September 11th happened, the reason that God allowed it to h... LEWIS BLACK The universe is so vast, so immense, we can never expect to explore it all. It is in effect, not so ... CHRISTINA ENGELA Why does light travel at a finite speed? Is it because light is the only existence that you cannot a... BART A D'ANGELO Often in the past, there have been authors that were deeply disappointed in their adaptation, but th... LOIS LOWRY What is it that makes you so angry, bothers you so deeply, that you're compelled to act? CRAIG GROESCHEL God tells us not to question him, is this because he can not answer our questions? LIVVY ANDERSON Another version of the “Prosperity Gospel” or “Name It and Claim It” teaching has to do with... ERIC METAXAS Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mytholog... JOSEPH CAMPBELL And the cook took up the shoulder, and that which was upon it, and set it before Saul. And Samuel sa... BIBLE
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