Quotes from Samuel Butler

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

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

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

Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.

Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap.

Though analogy is often misleading, it is the least misleading thing we have.

No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.

To live is like to love: all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct is for it.

We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

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

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

I reckon being ill is one of the greatest pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.

What runs through a person like water through a sieve.

The advantage of doing one's praising to oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.

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

People are lucky and unlucky ... according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.

No matter how ill we may be, nor how low we may have fallen, we should not change identity with any other person.

The foundations which we would dig about and find are within us, like the Kingdom of Heaven, rather than without.

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

We grow weary of those things (and perhaps soonest) which we most desire.

Silence is not always tact, and it is tact that is golden, not silence.

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