Samuel Butler

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.

— Samuel Butler

For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

— Samuel Butler

A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide.

— Samuel Butler

The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.

— Samuel Butler

The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.

— Samuel Butler

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence.

— Samuel Butler

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

— Samuel Butler

Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.

— Samuel Butler

A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.

— Samuel Butler

Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket, and the older he grows, the more things will he promptly consign to it.

— Samuel Butler

When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through either the berry of a grape, or else a tub of malt. These are the most reliable filters yet invented.

— Samuel Butler

For Wealth are all things that conduce, to one's destruction or their use. A standard both to buy and sell, all things from heaven down to hell.

— Samuel Butler

Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it.

— Samuel Butler

Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbors, we have got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst of them.

— Samuel Butler

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

— Samuel Butler

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

— Samuel Butler

The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them.

— Samuel Butler

Ernest felt now that the turning point of his life had come. He would give up all for Christ--even his tobacco. So he gathered together his pipes and pouches, and locked them up in his portmanteau under his bed where they should be out of sight, and as much out of mind as possible. He did not burn them, because someone might come in who wanted to smoke, and though he might abridge his own liberty, yet, as smoking was not a sin, there was no reason why he should be hard on other people.

— Samuel Butler

There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle.

— Samuel Butler

There are two great rules in life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every one can in the end get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less of an exception to the general rule.

— Samuel Butler