Samuel Butler

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.

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 - Erewhon (1872)
It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.

Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.

If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.

All progress is based on a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
Samuel Butler - In Festing Jones, Samuel Butler : A Memoir
When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.

Logic is like the sword--those who appeal to it shall perish by it.
Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh, Chapter 77
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.

People care more about being thought to have taste than about being good, clever, or amiable.

Man, unlike the animals, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it.
Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh
Then he saw also that it matters little what profession, whether of religion or irreligion, a man may make, provided only he follows it out with charitable inconsistency, and without insisting on it to the bitter end. It is in the uncompromisingness with which dogma is held and not in the dogma or want of dogma that the danger lies.
Samuel Butler - The Way of All Flesh
He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most; God will take care that we do not enjoy it any more than is good for us.

Logic is like the sword: those who appeal to it shall perish by it.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

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

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.
Samuel Butler - Notebooks, 1912
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
Samuel Butler - The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
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.

The three most important parts a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money and his religious beliefs.

It has beeen said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.

Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty.

The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is

If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue.

Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds.

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

I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill.
Samuel Butler - 1835-1902
The difference between God and the historians consists above all in the fact that God cannot alter the past.

All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it.

All philosophies, if you ride them, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.

It does not matter much what a man hates provided he hates something.

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

- Samuel Butler