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Samuel Butler

81 quotes

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) was an English novelist, essayist, and critic whose iconoclastic wit challenged the Victorian establishment. His satirical novel *Erewhon* and the autobiographical *The Way of All Flesh* questioned received ideas about religion, family, and morality with a dry humor that was ahead of its time.

“Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.”

— Samuel Butler

Fear

All Quotes by Samuel Butler

“Priests are not men of the world it is not intended that they should be and a University training is the one best adapted to prevent their becoming so.”

— Samuel Butler

Best

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.”

— Samuel Butler

Knowledge

“God and the Devil are an effort after specialization and the division of labor.”

— Samuel Butler

God

“The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.”

— Samuel Butler

Family

“For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.”

— Samuel Butler

Truth

“The sinews of art and literature, like those of war, are money.”

— Samuel Butler

Art

“If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention to him.”

— Samuel Butler

God

“The history of art is the history of revivals.”

— Samuel Butler

Art

“In law, nothing is certain but the expense.”

— Samuel Butler

Legal

“We all like to forgive, and love best not those who offend us least, nor who have done most for us, but those who make it most easy for us to forgive them.”

— Samuel Butler

Best

“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.”

— Samuel Butler

Valentinesday

“A physician's physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric's divinity has to his power of influencing conduct.”

— Samuel Butler

Medical

“Mr. Tennyson has said that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, but he wisely refrains from saying whether they are good or bad things.”

— Samuel Butler

Dreams

“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

Death

“The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.”

— Samuel Butler

Money

“Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.”

— Samuel Butler

Respect

“Death is only a larger kind of going abroad.”

— Samuel Butler

Death

“Brigands demand your money or your life women require both.”

— Samuel Butler

Money

“A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.”

— Samuel Butler

Nature

“If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success.”

— Samuel Butler

Death