Quotes from Samuel Butler

Time is the only true purgatory.

They [my thoughts] are like persons met upon a journey; I think them very agreeable at first but soon find, as a rule, that I am tired of them.

Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration at the time. True inspiration always steals on a person; its importance not being fully recognised for some time.

There are some things which it is madness not to try to know but which it is almost as much madness to try to know.

Honesty consists not in never stealing but in knowing where to stop in stealing, and how to make good use of what one does steal.

A mans style in any art should be like his dress it should attract as little attention as possible.

A great portrait is always more a portrait of the painter than of the painted.

Thought pure and simple is as near to God as we can get; it is through this that we are linked with God.

Feeling is an art and, like any other art, can be acquired by taking pains.

Memory and forgetfulness are as life and death to one another. To live is to remember and to remember is to live. To die is to forget and to forget is to die.

To be is to think and to be thinkable. To live is to continue thinking and to remember having done so.

To love God is to have good health, good looks, good sense, experience, a kindly nature and a fair balance of cash in hand.

We play out our days as we play out cards, taking them as they come, not knowing what they will be, hoping for a lucky card and sometimes getting one, often getting just the wrong one.

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

Justice while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

Youth is like spring, an overpraised season

Genius is no respecter of time, trouble, money or persons, the four things around which human affairs turn most persistently.

The truest characters of ignorance Are vanity, and pride, and annoyance.

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

Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness with others

He'd undertake to prove, by force Of argument, a man's no horse. He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl, And that a Lord may be an owl, A calf an Alderman, a goose a Justice, And rooks, Committee-men or Trustees.

I've heard old cunning stagers Say, fools for arguments use wagers.

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