Samuel Butler Quotes and Sayings

Samuel Butler Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Samuel Butler quotes, Samuel Butler sayings, and Samuel Butler proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing to do is die at once. Samuel Butler

Be virtuous and you will beÂ vicious. Samuel Butler

People are lucky andÂ unluckyÂ not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect. Samuel Butler

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like a turnip: there is nothing good of him but that which is underground. Samuel Butler

To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty. Samuel Butler

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

The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. Samuel Butler

The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions. Samuel Butler

People are always in good company when they are doing what they really enjoy. Samuel Butler

Always eat grapes downwards - that is, always eat the best grape first; in this way there will be none better left on the bunch, and each grape will seem good down to the last. Samuel Butler

People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy. Samuel Butler

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

Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day. Samuel Butler

The day runs through me as water through a sieve. Samuel Butler

The course of true anything never does run smooth. Samuel Butler

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning. Samuel Butler

It is tact that is golden, not silence. Samuel Butler

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

A physician's physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric's divinity has to his power of influencing conduct. Samuel Butler

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

If life is an illusion, then so is death - the greatest of all illusions. If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death. Samuel Butler

Chief of domestic knights and errant, / Either for cartel or for warrant; / Great on the bench, great in the saddle, / That could as well bind o'er, as swaddle; / Mighty he was at both of these, / And styl'd of war, as well as peace. Samuel Butler

The great 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. Samuel Butler

Flying. Whatever any other organism has been able to do man should surely be able to do also, though he may go a different way about it. Samuel Butler

It is an unconscious liar that is the greatest liar. Samuel Butler

The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way. Samuel Butler

It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. Samuel Butler

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

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

A man's friendships are invalidated by his marriage, but they are also no less invalidated by the marriage of his friends. Samuel Butler