And William says, "I lost one son utterly."... ..."So I've held my tongue. But the truth is you didn't go to war. You went through the motions. But you turned it into graduate school. You contrived a comfortable place on the edge of the action to go study. You didn't even let the army decide your fate. You wangled your safe little job with a pre-enlistment deal and avoided the real thing. You told all the others who manned up, 'Better you do the dirty work, not me. Better your blood than mine.
Robert Olen Butler
Related I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES Long-time viewing of Internet violence tend to change a person's temperament, making the person pron... YOU QUANXI If positive and healthy materials are absent, negative materials are sure to be dominant in the cybe... YOU QUANXI In a robust global business environment, our business units operated well in the first quarter. More... HARRY YOU The Board of Directors and I are pleased to recognize Peter's outstanding contribution to the succes... HARRY YOU We are pleased to close the books on 2004 following the painstaking review of almost five years of f... HARRY YOU Little drops of rain Whisper of the pain Tears of love Lost in the days gone by. ROBERT PLANT "THANK YOU" The same way i could live when I didnt know you, I can live without you after letting you go, But th... DALEEN IRSHAID The love you get, is equal to the love you give. BEN OAK The problem with losing your anonymity is that you can never go back. MARLA MAPLES All that the spider needs to complete its web is step taking ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Life is a canvas it starts off plain and simple to become your own masterpiece.Gary F Evans... GARY F EVANS... And it was pointless...to think how those years could have been put to better use, for he could hard... CHARLES FRAZIER The only thing you have to know are your words. EVA GABOR If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don't get all the facts, it can'... BERNARD BARUCH some people graduate on time. some others graduate at the right time. no matter about the time you g... NUNKI ARTURA PEACE IS THE OBJECTIVE TO WAR, BUT THE BLOOD RUNNETH STILL NATALIE URQUIETA Beauty is the light within. Only when you see the light within yourself will others see it in you. F. JOHNSON The best thing you can do for your kids is to show them God working in you on a daily basis. CRAIG GROESCHEL Knowledge isn't the issue, it's what you think you know that's not the truth. RICK PRICE The idea is to believe me... but as far as I see the world... to believe is a sin... to trust me one... DEYTH BANGER If you're going to go to the moon, you don't shoot the rocket right at the moon. You have to... DREW HOUSTON I hate the way you talk to me. And the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hat... JULIA STILES The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following... SETH GODIN You hand fits in mine like its made to be but bear this in mind it was meant to be and im joining up... ONE DIRECTION My mother refused to let me fail. So I insisted. WALKER PERCY Perhaps you would have preferred it if I had not written you any letter. Perhaps you would have like... FéLIX J. PALMA Do not be complacent about your achievements and not to strive for continual improvement when you ge... ROY T. BENNETT The big thing that will be lost is daily print competition, and I think competition makes all of us ... JIM WILLIS Focus on your work. Do what you're great at. Don't compare yourself to others and or waste time crit... GERMANY KENT You said you wanted the truth. Now what are you willing to do with it? MONIKA ZANDS my hands shake from the discomfort and pain this world puts me throught my eyes burn from crying ove... AMBER FAITH HUN To have the cognitive abilities to do research and development is vital to a forever expanding world... GARY F EVANS... When you find somebody you love, all the way through, and she loves you—even with your weaknesses,... NORA ROBERTS The tough thing about writing is you go into a room alone, you close the door and you do your work. RANDY WAYNE WHITE Ive loved you my whole life, I just didnt know it until now ~ANYA SUNDQUIST~ Study a foreign language if you have opportunity to do so. You may never be called to a land where t... GORDON B. HINCKLEY Your complaints, your drama, your victim mentality, your whining, your blaming, and all of your excu... STEVE MARABOLI I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. It is good to brush your teeth when you are angry, becau... LEMONY SNICKET Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative wor... IRA GLASS To be the best is a choice you make on your own SOTONYE ANGA Where do you go when you go blank? Where do you go when the only thing that's living is your physica... ROSA M. BETANCES But you must decide whether you are going to pursue reality and health or to retreat into your fanta... TALITHA DAY FAIR Don’t let anyone kick you down, but if they do, pick yourself up & dust off yourself. Never change... DR ANIL KUMAR SINHA For me the most important thing in my life is love. I think you have to be in love with your family,... JOSE MOURINHO The one thing you can control is effort. MALIK JACKSON The one thing you can't do when you're highly ranked is relax. WILLIAM FLOYD it is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didnt MARTIN VAN BUREN If your head tells you one thing, and your heart tells you another, before you do anything, you shou... MARILYN VOS SAVANT Cooking is in an honest profession where you cannot hide and let others do the work for you. You hav... MARCUS SAMUELSSON You do more for your kids than your parents did for you. My responsibility is to make [my daughter's... JEFF PROZNIK You, Eternal Trinity, are my Creator, and I am the work of Your hands, and I know through the new cr... CATHERINE OF SIENA Time is so important.'so spend time doing something that you love.' make the most of it and Let the ... NAPZ CHERUB PELLAZO I don't think you can have pain and soul-searching doing the right thing for your child. DIANE ABBOTT You release the pain of the past and press on. It's a new day, and God is doing a new thing. He want... CRAIG GROESCHEL Starting a band is the easy part. Once you've formed the band, you have to tell a story, and tha... THE EDGE The big cop-out would be to accept popularity rather than opting to try to create potent work. It... THE EDGE Jazz came out of New Orleans, and that was the forerunner of everything. You mix jazz with European ... THE EDGE Music is such a great communicator. It breaks down linguistic barriers, cultural barriers, it basica... THE EDGE We've always tried to do different things with the sound of the band, but with this record we've tri... THE EDGE You see, rock and roll isn't a career or hobby - it's a life force. It's something very ... THE EDGE Most groups, I think, would have been taking their foot of the gas at this point. But we have the ex... THE EDGE One of the good things about globalization is it has created a single international music community,... THE EDGE We want this record to be something that people really listen to, rather than just have in their rec... THE EDGE A trumpet sounds pretty much like a trumpet, and that's true of a lot instruments; pianos sound ... THE EDGE Weirdly enough, if I'm having trouble with a guitar part - not the playing of it but the writing... THE EDGE For me, looking back is akin to being on a tightrope and looking down. It doesn't help you in th... THE EDGE With The Simpsons you can go back to work with a keen heart. JOE STRUMMER Your worst enemy is not the person you hate most! But the ego that lives inside of you and the anger... PHILIP T. M. Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ... GERMANY KENT The problem with binge-watching on Netflix is that you lose three days of your life. HARLAND WILLIAMS I was interested in Java the beginning, but the problem with Java is you do have to switch your plat... MIGUEL DE ICAZA No one can take your ability to love away from you. You may go through a period of pain. You may eve... AKIROQ BROST It is not the dead rather the ones who lives through war have seen the dreadful end of the war, you ... PUSHPA RANA You think you're lost but you're not lost on your own. You're not alone. I will stand by you, I will... RASCAL FLATTS At any other time it's better. You can do the things you feel you should; you're an expert at going ... DEXTER PALMER The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything: the better you are with your loved ones,... BILL MURRAY Your destination might not end up being exactly what you envisioned to start with, but if you stick ... JOY MANGANO You are constantly told in depression that your judgment is compromised, but a part of depression is... ANDREW SOLOMON All of the people who work in the kitchen with me go out into the forests and on to the beach. It... RENE REDZEPI You Have Seen the Cure for Cancer Many Times, Even Right Now! So the Problem is Not Finding a Cure, ... THEHEALTHFOODGURU When all is said and done the only thing you'll have left is your character. VINCE GILL There's so much you thought you could never face. The decision not to try to control your power, to ... JOSS WHEDON You don't know how I feel about you, but you know that I do. I from. I feel about you. Knowing that ... KAYLA RAE Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead let life live through you. And do not worr... RUMI When a man takes one step toward God, God takes more steps toward that man than there are sands in t... THE WORK OF THE CHARIOT The whole time I pretend I have mental telepathy. And with my mind only, I’ll say — or think? �... MATTHEW QUICK Do not let the tears fool you. She lied and cheated once, she will again. Your call to continue with... TREVON CLARK I don't think man and woman should be compared, You don't compare things that complete one another. FAITH N. Those who want to hear from you will let you hear from them. TREVON CLARK Lies are a little fortress; inside them you feel safe and powerful. Through your little fortress of ... WILLIAM PAUL YOUNG Your worst enemy is not the person you hate most! But the ego that lives inside your head and the an... PHILIP T. M. Everyone always says how I'm so smart, but they don't know what it's like being me. always feeling l... SUSANE COLASANTI People love to say, “You gotta fake it till you make it.” But this implies that the fake you is ... RICHIE NORTON God knows your value; He sees your potential. You may not understand everything you are going throug... JOEL OSTEEN We have tears in our eyes As we wave our goodbyes, We so loved being with you, we three. ROALD DAHL The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of you... GEORGE CARLIN The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of you... GEORGE CARLIN It is better, then, to save the work while it is begun. You have done the labor; maintain itkeep it.... ABRAHAM LINCOLN When you get a lot of runs to work with, it makes your job easier, but you also don't want to go bac... KIRK SAARLOOS
More Robert Olen Butler
And so, given the musical sensibilities Hatcher treasured in his earthly life, it is hard to exagger... ROBERT OLEN BUTLER The monitor presently shows the Windows Blue Screen of Death, though this does not alarm him, as the... ROBERT OLEN BUTLER Without balance, a life is no longer worth the effort. OLEN STEINHAUER When you go to towns that are dying on the vine, it's because there is dissention between the city c... ROBERT BUTLER Nothing discovered yet has been shown to stop or slow down aging. ROBERT BUTLER When I'm 80 and sagging all over, I can tell my grandkids, 'Look, when I was a lad, 'Peo... GERARD BUTLER Honestly, what can really be said about 'the Jewish people' as a whole? Is it not a lamentab... JUDITH BUTLER I never worked less than 16-hour days on South Beach. YANCY BUTLER I think seeing some of the past can be helpful, especially if you're into crime solving. YANCY BUTLER I'll try anything once. YANCY BUTLER I'm open to sci-fi, but I was never a diehard fan. I have no idea why it keeps following me. I... YANCY BUTLER I'm the oldest 26-year-old I know. A lot of experience has been crammed into a short amount of t... YANCY BUTLER I've spent a lot of time and money trying to keep my anger in control. YANCY BUTLER My grandfather was a cop in Long Island. I often try to draw on things that I've heard about him... YANCY BUTLER My mother's side of the family was in the production side of theatre. My grandfather, Jose Vega,... YANCY BUTLER Once you get into a part, and someone sees you, you get asked to do it again. YANCY BUTLER To say I'm the easiest person to live with would be a lie. YANCY BUTLER People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio b... SAMUEL BUTLER Logic is like the sword - those who appeal to it, shall perish by it. SAMUEL BUTLER To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it. SAMUEL BUTLER If I die prematurely I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success. SAMUEL BUTLER The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them. SAMUEL BUTLER Self-preservation is the first law of nature. SAMUEL BUTLER A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg. SAMUEL BUTLER Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. SAMUEL BUTLER The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance. SAMUEL BUTLER Whether it goes to series or stands by itself, I'm proud of what we did with it, not only from t... YANCY BUTLER A comic can be aesthetically beautiful. I think they captured it beautifully and accurately. YANCY BUTLER Don't we all just really try to fake it well? YANCY BUTLER I love old movies. The '40s theatre pace is fantastic. YANCY BUTLER I'm just an actress. They try to give me as little information as possible. YANCY BUTLER I've always played strong women who are doing their own thing. YANCY BUTLER Yancy is actually a Native-American name, but I'm Irish. Go figure. YANCY BUTLER I grew up in Greenwich Village. Dad was friends with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. YANCY BUTLER My junior high was dreadful. I see a lot of my fellow alumni on America's Most Wanted. YANCY BUTLER Women have been kicking ass for centuries. YANCY BUTLER People just kind of associate me with kicking some ass. YANCY BUTLER Imagine if it happened to you: All of a sudden you find this thing on your wrist and people are tell... YANCY BUTLER My taste in music and entertainment is quite eclectic. YANCY BUTLER I pretty much make time for that weekly manicure. YANCY BUTLER I think sometimes women who are supposed to be strong are also written as mean and vindictive. YANCY BUTLER I think we won't be able to understand the operations of trans-phobia, homophobia, if we don'... JUDITH BUTLER We act as if that being of a man or that being of a woman is actually an internal reality or somethi... JUDITH BUTLER You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good st... OCTAVIA BUTLER When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to di... SAMUEL BUTLER A man who reads effeminate may well be consistently heterosexual, and another one might be gay. We c... JUDITH BUTLER Bishops are like umpires. You have to have them to call the close decisions. FRANK BUTLER I've had broken bones and cuts and dashes and tears from movies, but when I was five, my mom put... GERARD BUTLER No one was going to stop me from writing and no one had to really guide me towards science fiction. ... OCTAVIA BUTLER Science fiction let me do both. It let me look into science and stick my nose in everywhere. OCTAVIA BUTLER And by the way, I wanted to point out that Kindred is not science fiction. You'll note there'... OCTAVIA BUTLER Fantasy is totally wide open; all you really have to do is follow the rules you've set. But if y... OCTAVIA BUTLER Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilitie... OCTAVIA BUTLER And I have this little litany of things they can do. And the first one, of course, is to write - eve... OCTAVIA BUTLER People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn't bother me. It's ot... OCTAVIA BUTLER No, I think the future of humanity will be like the past, we'll do what we've always done an... OCTAVIA BUTLER Once you grow past Mommy and Daddy coming running when you're hurt, you're really on your ow... OCTAVIA BUTLER I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell. OCTAVIA BUTLER While Fledging is a different type of book, The Parable series serve as cautionary tales. I wrote th... OCTAVIA BUTLER A workshop is a way of renting an audience, and making sure you're communicating what you think ... OCTAVIA BUTLER What I'm working on now - I'm back to fantasy, although considering that it's me, I'... OCTAVIA BUTLER I have a huge and savage conscience that won't let me get away with things. OCTAVIA BUTLER Religion kept some of my relatives alive, because it was all they had. If they hadn't had some h... OCTAVIA BUTLER Most of us don't have to worry about being shot if we poke our noses outside. So we are comforta... OCTAVIA BUTLER Well, writing was what I wanted to do, it was always what I wanted to do. I had novels to write so I... OCTAVIA BUTLER Third, for people who aren't doing it already, take classes - they're worthwhile. Workshops ... OCTAVIA BUTLER Black Sabbath was written on bass: I just walked into the studio and went, bah, bah, bah, and everyb... GEEZER BUTLER I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brou... SMEDLEY BUTLER Only if we accept the proposition that the state of Israel is the exclusive and legitimate represent... JUDITH BUTLER I love my iPhone; it's great to have a camera around all the time. WIN BUTLER The dons of Oxford and Cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anyth... SAMUEL BUTLER Cameras help to minimize collateral damage, and very often, without a camera a missile cannot fire. ... JUDITH BUTLER I'm not big on the closet. DAN BUTLER I'm not a straight man, but I play one on television. DAN BUTLER There are so many different camps about what being gay means. The danger comes when each one is so r... DAN BUTLER Our responsibility as artists is to challenge ourselves. DAN BUTLER I'm an actor. DAN BUTLER Every retailer, when they price their goods, looks at their total cost overall. When they have costs... DAN BUTLER I think there are a lot of honest people doing honest business on online auctions. But the control o... DAN BUTLER Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them ... SAMUEL BUTLER Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. SAMUEL BUTLER The advantage of doing one's praising to oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in t... SAMUEL BUTLER I went to the Bach Choir concert and heard Mozart's Requiem. I did not rise warmly to it. Then I hea... SAMUEL BUTLER It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of r... SAMUEL BUTLER The money men make lives after them. SAMUEL BUTLER The want of money is the root of all evil. SAMUEL BUTLER All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. SAMUEL BUTLER For most men, and most circumstances, pleasure --tangible material prosperity in this world --is the... SAMUEL BUTLER A lawyers dream of heaven; every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to r... SAMUEL BUTLER In law, nothing is certain but the expense. SAMUEL BUTLER People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy. SAMUEL BUTLER Optimism and humor are the grease and glue of life. Without both of them we would never have survive... PHILIP BUTLER Life is one long process of getting tired. SAMUEL BUTLER Is life worth living? This is a question for an embryo not for a man. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. SAMUEL BUTLER A man's friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage -- but they are also no less invalid... SAMUEL BUTLER A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does... SAMUEL BUTLER When the righteous man truth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which... SAMUEL BUTLER It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all. SAMUEL BUTLER Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance. SAMUEL BUTLER The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them. SAMUEL BUTLER Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him. SAMUEL BUTLER We are not won by arguments that we can analyze, but by tone and temper; by the manner, which is the... SAMUEL BUTLER Neither irony or sarcasm is argument. SAMUEL BUTLER Because they did not see merit where they should have seen it, people, to express their regret, will... SAMUEL BUTLER There is but one step from the Academy to the Fad. SAMUEL BUTLER The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way. SAMUEL BUTLER I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy. SAMUEL BUTLER Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging h... SAMUEL BUTLER Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. SAMUEL BUTLER To die is but to leave off dying and do the thing once for all. SAMUEL BUTLER The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the... SAMUEL BUTLER There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death. SAMUEL BUTLER What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer l... SAMUEL BUTLER You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it. SAMUEL BUTLER Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be b... SAMUEL BUTLER Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God. SAMUEL BUTLER If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wa... SAMUEL BUTLER We all like to forgive, and love best not those who offend us least, nor who have done most for us, ... SAMUEL BUTLER There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon. SAMUEL BUTLER Eating is touch carried to the bitter end. SAMUEL BUTLER The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions. SAMUEL BUTLER Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so. SAMUEL BUTLER Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. A... SAMUEL BUTLER There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every... SAMUEL BUTLER I believe that he was really sorry that people would not believe he was sorry that he was not more s... SAMUEL BUTLER Life, they urge, would be intolerable if men were to be guided in all they did by reason and reason ... SAMUEL BUTLER If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason. SAMUEL BUTLER The public do not know enough to be experts, but know enough to decide between them. SAMUEL BUTLER In matrimony, to hesitate is sometimes to be saved. SAMUEL BUTLER It is tact that is golden, not silence. SAMUEL BUTLER Silence is not always tact, but it is tact that is golden, not silence. SAMUEL BUTLER All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others. SAMUEL BUTLER From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right. SAMUEL BUTLER Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children. SAMUEL BUTLER When the water of a place is bad it is safest to drink none that has not been filtered through eithe... SAMUEL BUTLER Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated... SAMUEL BUTLER The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds. SAMUEL BUTLER The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religi... 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 ... SAMUEL BUTLER Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. SAMUEL BUTLER The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to ap... SAMUEL BUTLER Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game; true as a dial to the sun, although it b... SAMUEL BUTLER One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fightin... SAMUEL BUTLER Logic is like the sword SAMUEL BUTLER All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond it... SAMUEL BUTLER Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket, and the older he grows, the more things will he pro... SAMUEL BUTLER The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday. SAMUEL BUTLER He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. God will take care that we do not enjoy it any m... SAMUEL BUTLER A hen is only a egg's way of making another egg. SAMUEL BUTLER To himself everyone is an immortal. He may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that ... SAMUEL BUTLER I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obl... SAMUEL BUTLER The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is ... SAMUEL BUTLER Opinions have vested interests just as men have. SAMUEL BUTLER The world will only, in the end, follow those who have despised as well as served it. SAMUEL BUTLER Compound for sins they are inclined to by damning those they have no mind to. SAMUEL BUTLER The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he no... SAMUEL BUTLER A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war. SAMUEL BUTLER Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away. SAMUEL BUTLER Every one is a genius, more or less. No one is so physically sound that no part of him will be even ... SAMUEL BUTLER A genius can never expect to have a good time anywhere, if he is a genuine article, but America is a... SAMUEL BUTLER God cannot alter the past, but historians can. SAMUEL BUTLER Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and pro... SAMUEL BUTLER Letters are like wine; if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as h... SAMUEL BUTLER Those who have never had a father can at any rate never know the sweets of losing one. To most men t... SAMUEL BUTLER For every why he had a wherefore. SAMUEL BUTLER Then spare the rod and spoil the child. SAMUEL BUTLER People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it ... SAMUEL BUTLER If there is any moral in Christianity, if there is anything to be learned from it, if the whole stor... SAMUEL BUTLER Such as take lodgings in a head that's to be let unfurnished. SAMUEL BUTLER An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when intr... SAMUEL BUTLER Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions. SAMUEL BUTLER The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore. SAMUEL BUTLER English literature is a kind of training in social ethics. English trains you to handle a body of in... MARILYN BUTLER Birth and death are so closely related that one could not destroy either without destroying the othe... SAMUEL BUTLER It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy -- but he who has s... SAMUEL BUTLER Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he... SAMUEL BUTLER It is immoral to get drunk because the headache comes after the drinking, but if the headache came f... SAMUEL BUTLER He that complies against his will is of his own opinion still. SAMUEL BUTLER Science, after all, is only an expression for our ignorance of our own ignorance. SAMUEL BUTLER A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not se... SAMUEL BUTLER The thief. Once committed beyond a certain point he should not worry himself too much about not bein... SAMUEL BUTLER The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. SAMUEL BUTLER The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them. SAMUEL BUTLER Conscience is thoroughly well-bred and soon leaves off talking to those who do not wish to hear it. SAMUEL BUTLER Union may be strength, but it is mere blind brute strength unless wisely directed. SAMUEL BUTLER The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. SAMUEL BUTLER The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds. SAMUEL BUTLER He that complies against his will, Is of his own opinion still. SAMUEL BUTLER Spontaneity is only a term for man's ignorance of the gods SAMUEL BUTLER To be at all is to be religious more or less SAMUEL BUTLER Logic is like the sword--those who appeal to it shall perish by it. SAMUEL BUTLER The extremes of glory and of shame, Like east and west, become the same No Indian prince has to his ... SAMUEL BUTLER One who is proud of ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is underg... SAMUEL BUTLER A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to ... SAMUEL BUTLER The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule. SAMUEL BUTLER We payt a person the complement of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him. SAMUEL BUTLER