Quotes from Samuel Butler

It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of respectable parents.

Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

Man, unlike the animals, has never learned that the sole purpose of life is to enjoy it.

The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you but he will make a fool of himself too.

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

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

Every one should keep a mental wastepaper basket and the older he grows the more things he will consign to it-torn up to irrecoverable tatters.

It is in the uncompromisingness with which dogma is held and not in the dogma or want of dogma that the danger lies.

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.

Theist and atheist: The fight between them is as to whether God shall be called God or shall have some other name.

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

God was satisfied with his own work, and that is fatal.

God and the Devil are an effort after specialisation and division of labour.

And so there is no God but has been in the loins of past gods.

To know God better is only to realize how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish to deny him, or define him.

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.

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.

There is such a thing as doing good that evil may come.

He is greatest who is most often in men's good thoughts.

The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.

The history of art is the history of revivals.

Since God himself cannot change the past, He is obliged to tolerate the existence of historians.

History is a bucket of ashes.