Happiness or satisfaction consists only in the enjoyment of those objects which are by nature suited to our several particular appetites, passions, and affections.
Joseph Butler
Related Every man hath a general desire of his own happiness; and likewise a variety of particular affection... JOSEPH BUTLER LOVE: A word properly applied to our delight in particular kinds of food; sometimes metaphorically s... HENRY FIELDING Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures... RALPH W. SOCKMAN The ultimate end of education is happiness or a good human life, a life enriched by the possession o... MORTIMER ADLER The principle we call self-love never seeks anything external for the sake of the thing, but only as... JOSEPH BUTLER The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalt... JONATHAN EDWARDS The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalt... JONATHAN EDWARDS Happiness consists in activity; such as the constitution of our nature; it is a running stream, and ... ANONYMOUS Judge of thine improvement, not by what thou speakest or writest, but by the firmness of thy mind, a... THOMAS FULLER I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists. I wish to persuade ... MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT Our happiness in this world depends on the affections we are able to inspire. DUCHESS PRAZLIN There are other ways of finding satisfaction, recipes for human happiness, enjoyment, dignified and ... ZYGMUNT BAUMAN Many things are unknown to the wisest, and the best men can never wholly divest themselves of passio... ALGERNON SYDNEY Many things are unknown to the wisest, and the best men can never wholly divest themselves of passio... ALGERNON SIDNEY Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures... RALPH W. SOCKMAN Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites. WILLIAM RUCKELSHAUS Satisfaction consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of life. ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER On the spiritual theory, man consists essentially of a spiritual nature or mind intimately associate... ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE But quality of work can be expected only through personal satisfaction, dedication and enjoyment. In... NIKLAUS WIRTH The heart which finds life in material wealth is usually certain to go farther and seek for more in ... GEORGE A. SMITH Every one of our passions and affections hath its natural stint and bound, which may easily be excee... JOSEPH BUTLER Some find that they are content with little, while others find that they want much, much more. Still... STEPHEN RICHARDS The black holes of nature are the most perfect macroscopic objects there are in the universe: the on... SUBRAHMANYAN CHANDRASEKHAR If we knew all the laws of Nature, we should need only one fact, or the description of one actual ph... HENRY DAVID THOREAU Some go to the light of nature and the use of "right reason" (that is, their own) as their guides; a... JOHN OWEN Curiosity is natural to the soul of man and interesting objects have a powerful influence on our aff... DANIEL BOONE I used to hold a unitary view, in which I proposed that only experienced happiness matters, and that... DANIEL KAHNEMAN The first thought is often the best.
- Bishop Joseph Butler, BISHOP JOSEPH BUTLER Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and ... BERTRAND RUSSELL Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and ch... BERTRAND RUSSELL Our character is not so much the product of race and heredity as of those circumstances by which nat... MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO Never fear spoiling children by making them too happy. Happiness is the atmosphere in which all good... THOMAS BRAY Our enemies are our evil deeds and their memories, our pride, our selfishness, our malice, our passi... GEORGE A. SMITH Divines are generally agreed that sin radically and fundamentally consists in what is negative, or p... JONATHAN EDWARDS There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nat... BLAISE PASCAL Success in highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which comes ... NAPOLEON HILL Football was always a deal we made with ourselves. We adopted it for its brutality, which was embedd... CHARLIE PIERCE Those whose only aim is to barter the energies of life for gold, or name, or any other enjoyment; th... SWAMI VIVEKANANDA There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotio... DAVID HUME The safety and happiness of society are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to ... JAMES MADISON The safety and happiness of society are the objects at which all political institutions aim, and to ... JAMES MADISON The private interest of the individual would not be sufficiently provided for by reasonable and cool... JOSEPH BUTLER Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which co... NAPOLEON HILL I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit... DALAI LAMA But I see no reason why a woman should not grow and develop in all those outlets which are suited to... AGNES SMEDLEY Love is the most terrible, and also the most generous of the passions; it is the only one which incl... ALPHONSE KARR Love is the most terrible, and also the most generous of the passions; it is the only one which incl... ALPHONSE KARR The part of me which wanders through my mind and never sees or feels actual objects, but which lives... JACK HENRY ABBOTT The part of me which wanders through my mind and never sees or feels actual objects, but which lives... JACK ABBOTT The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only ... THOMAS JEFFERSON Now an infinite happiness cannot be purchased by any price less than that which is infinite in value... ADAM CLARKE Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to b... WILLIAM JAMES Many people believe that happiness is the result of external situations in life. Unfortunately, that... DR ANIL KUMAR SINHA All the objects pursued by the multitude not only bring no remedy that tends to preserve our being, ... BARUCH SPINOZA The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little fart... E. M. FORSTER God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. The enjoyment of him is our proper; and is the o... JONATHAN EDWARDS Moreover, there is no known reason why the geometry of space and time should be described by the par... JOHN D. BARROW In these early anonymous seasons, God graciously grants us the opportunity to wrestle with our appet... ALICIA BRITT CHOLE I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites. RALPH WALDO EMERSON A person feels the pain in judicious proportion to the sensitive nature cherished in own world; othe... ANUJ SOMANY All suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their ... DALAI LAMA XIV Civilized ages inherit the human nature which was victorious in barbarous ages, and that nature is, ... WALTER BAGEHOT When we hate our enemies, we are giving them power over us: power over our sleep, our appetites, our... DALE CARNEGIE The objects that are of moderate energy, like our sun or most of the stars that we see in the night ... CLAUDE NICOLLIER Men are more accountable for their motives, than for anything else; and primarily, morality consists... ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the p... EPICTETUS Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion.... CAMILLE PAGLIA Beauty is our weapon against nature; by it we make objects, giving them limit, symmetry, proportion.... CAMILLE ANNA PAGLIA What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to o... MICHEL FOUCAULT One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but thos... MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE Deceivers are the most dangerous members of society. They trifle with the best affections of our nat... GEORGE CRABBE At any time, and under any circumstances of human interest, is it not strange to see how little real... WILKIE COLLINS I'm not motivated by money or power or fame. In the end, it doesn't bring much happiness. Th... WILLIAM CLAY FORD, JR. I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gon... E. M. FORSTER The passions are the only orators which always persuade. FRANCOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD Christianity has aimed to deliver us from a life determined by nature, from the appetites as actuati... MAX STIRNER The main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. are the sole objects of all legit... THOMAS JEFFERSON All the dark, malevolent Passions of the Soul are roused and exerted; its mild and amiable affection... CHARLES INGLIS Many objects of our three-dimensional perceptual world are not only chiral but appear in nature in t... VLADIMIR PRELOG The will to overcome a passion is in the end merely the will of another or several other passions FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE There was one vampire movie that Gerard Butler was in, 'Dracula 2000,' and they touched on s... AMY HECKERLING A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a ... JOSEPH STORY ... each of us describes our existence by means of objects which are indifferent to us, which surviv... ANDREW MOTION Mental pleasure are never cloy; unlike those of the body, they are increased by repetition, approved... NATHANIEL COTTON Mental pleasure are never cloy; unlike those of the body, they are increased by repetition, approve... NATHANIEL COTTON I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gon... E. M. FORSTER Money alone is absolutely good, because it is not only a concrete satisfaction of one need in partic... ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER The rehabilitation of order as a universal principle, however, suggested at the same time that order... RUDOLF ARNHEIM Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death. BLAISE PASCAL His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle. JANE AUSTEN Nothing is as unique as sex in nature; it is full of enjoyment, pleasure and happiness. There is no ... M.F. MOONZAJER Our minds are like our stomachs; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies ... JOHN QUINTON Our minds are like our stomachs; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies ... QUINTILIAN Happiness comes only when we push our brains and hearts to the farthest reaches of which we are capa... LEO ROSTEN The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few e... THOMAS JEFFERSON And of all illumination which human reason can give, none is comparable to the discovery of what we ... ADAM WEISHAUPT To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benev... ADAM SMITH To feel much for others and little for ourselves; to restrain our selfishness and exercise our benev... ADAM SMITH I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we me... WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we me... KARL WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT
More Joseph Butler
The principle we call self-love never seeks anything external for the sake of the thing, but only as... JOSEPH BUTLER The Epistles in the New Testament have all of them a particular reference to the condition and usage... JOSEPH BUTLER The private interest of the individual would not be sufficiently provided for by reasonable and cool... JOSEPH BUTLER Every man hath a general desire of his own happiness; and likewise a variety of particular affection... JOSEPH BUTLER The object of self-love is expressed in the term self; and every appetite of sense, and every partic... JOSEPH BUTLER The tongue may be employed about, and made to serve all the purposes of vice, in tempting and deceiv... JOSEPH BUTLER Man may act according to that principle or inclination which for the present happens to be strongest... JOSEPH BUTLER Pain and sorrow and misery have a right to our assistance: compassion puts us in mind of the debt, a... JOSEPH BUTLER It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so mu... JOSEPH BUTLER To desire the attainment of this equality or superiority by the particular means of others being bro... JOSEPH BUTLER God Almighty is, to be sure, unmoved by passion or appetite, unchanged by affection; but then it is ... JOSEPH BUTLER Every one of our passions and affections hath its natural stint and bound, which may easily be excee... JOSEPH BUTLER The sum of the whole is plainly this: The nature of man considered in his single capacity, and with ... JOSEPH BUTLER Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why th... JOSEPH BUTLER Love of our neighbour, then, has just the same respect to, is no more distant from, self-love, than ... JOSEPH BUTLER That which is the foundation of all our hopes and of all our fears; all our hopes and fears which ar... JOSEPH BUTLER Sir, the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing, a ve... JOSEPH BUTLER What interested me is that it is working-class and some middle-class housing, ... Typically one find... JOSEPH BUTLER But to us, probability is the very guide of life JOSEPH BUTLER Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of
them will be what they will be; why t... BISHOP JOSEPH BUTLER The first thought is often the best.
- Bishop Joseph Butler, BISHOP JOSEPH 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