Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch a cold on overexposure. — Samuel Butler
The advantage of doing one’s praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places. — Samuel Butler
The ancient mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called the old sailor. — Samuel Butler
The athanasian creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science. — Samuel Butler
The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt. — Samuel Butler
The dons of oxford and cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything. — Samuel Butler
The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating — Samuel Butler
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. — Samuel Butler
The only living works are those which have drained much of the author’s own life into them. — Samuel Butler
The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions. — Samuel Butler
The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions. — Samuel Butler
The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion. — Samuel Butler
There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon. — Samuel Butler
There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought. — Samuel Butler
They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, ‘can he name a kitten?’ — Samuel Butler
Think of and look at your work as though it were done by your enemy. I you look at it to admire it, you are lost. — Samuel Butler
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
Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficacious I do not know. — Samuel Butler
What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? it should be, I bet that my redeemer liveth. — Samuel Butler
When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing to do is die at once. — Samuel Butler
When you’ve told someone that you’ve left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once. — Samuel Butler