Quotes from Samuel Butler

Death is only a larger kind of going abroad.

Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud.

Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule.

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

Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.

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

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

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

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.

Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.

Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime

Life is one long process of getting tired.

Prayers are to men as dolls are to children.

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

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

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

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

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

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

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

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

The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.