Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Quotes

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

• Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds.

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

• I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

• He that complies against his will is of the same opinion still.

• Conscience is thoroughly well bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it.

• Neither have they hearts to stay. Nor wit enough to run away.

• Life is one long process of getting tired.

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

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

• Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

• I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill.

• If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.

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