Life, they urge, would be intolerable if men were to be guided in all they did by reason and reason only. Reason betrays men into the drawing of hard and fast lines, and to the defining by language -- language being like the sun, which rears and then scorches. Extremes are alone logical, but they are always absurd; the mean is illogical, but an illogical mean is better than the sheer absurdity of an extreme. There are no follies and no unreasonablenesses so great as those which can apparently be irrefragably defended by reason itself, and there is hardly an error into which men may not easily be led if they base their conduct upon reason only. Reason might very possibly abolish the double currency; it might even attack the personality of Hope and Justice. Besides, people have such a strong natural bias towards it that they will seek it for themselves and act upon it quite as much as or more than is good for them: there is no need of encouraging reason. With unreason the case is different. She is the natural complement of reason, without whose existence reason itself were non- existent. If, then, reason would be non-existent were there no such thing as unreason, surely it follows that the more unreason there is, the more reason there must be also? Hence the necessity for the development of unreason, even in the interests of reason herself. The Professors of Unreason deny that they undervalue reason: none can be more convinced than they are, that if the double currency cannot be rigorously deduced as a necessary consequence of human reason, the double currency should cease forthwith; but they say that it must be deduced from no narrow and exclusive view of reason which should deprive that admirable faculty of the one-half of its own existence. Unreason is a part of reason; it must therefore be allowed its full share in stating the initial conditions.
Samuel 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 The reason for the unreason with which you treat my reason , so weakens my reason that with reason I... MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA If there is no higher reason--and there is none--then my own reason must be the supreme judge of my ... LEO NIKOLAEVICH TOLSTOY The difficulty is that, so long as unreason prevails, a solution of our troubles can only be reached... BERTRAND RUSSELL Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or wi... ETHAN ALLEN There is much of economic theory which is pursued for no better reason than its intellectual attract... JOHN HICKS We are raised in a society where we are taught to believe a more logical reason for an illogical hap... NICHOLAS A. MCGIRR The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond i... BLAISE PASCAL If one asks the whence derives the authority of fundamental ends, since they cannot be stated and ju... ALBERT EINSTEIN There can be as many wrong reasons to do the right thing as there are stars in the sky. There might ... DONITA K. PAUL Rationalists are admirable beings, rationalism is a hideous monster when it claims for itself omnipo... MAHATMA GANDHI When all is said and done, you are part of me. That's the way it was meant to be. People are brought... NEIL GAIMAN Religious wars are not caused by the fact that there is more than one religion, but by the spirit of... CHARLES DE SECONDAT Why should a religion claim that it is not bound to abide by the standpoint of reason! If one does n... ABHIJIT NASKAR So engrained in the human heart is the desire to believe that some people really do know what they s... SAMUEL BUTLER Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular a... ST. THOMAS AQUINAS To deprecate human reason by saying that none of us is or can be omniscient is absurd, for it takes ... MURRAY ROTHBARD We have seen, therefore, that I am not allowed even to *assume*, for the sake of the necessary pract... IMMANUEL KANT For some extraordinary reason, the Church moves in an atmosphere of antiquity. I have no doubt that ... WILLIAM BARCLAY Fanatics, as a class, have far more zeal than intellect and are fanatics only because they have. The... JOHN C. CALHOUN If the sleep of reason produces monsters, what does the sleep of unreason produce? GUILLERMO CABRERA INFANTE Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with bol... THOMAS JEFFERSON Feast of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Martyr, c.155 We may search so far, and reason so long of fa... JOHN DONNE It may be taken for granted that, rash as the Americans are, when they are prudent there is good rea... JULES VERNE The faculty to think objectively is reason ; the emotional attitude behind reason is that of... ERICH FROMM There is no reason why good cannot triumph as often as evil. The triumph of anything is a matter of ... KURT VONNEGUT Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix re... THOMAS JEFFERSON If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural.... BLAISE PASCAL Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of ... THOMAS JEFFERSON We grow old without knowing the reason. We build the walls for no good reason. We start th... ANTHONY T. HINCKS Perhaps one reason for the falling-off of belief in a continuance of conscious existence is to be fo... ALBERT J. NOCK As I do no good action here, merely for the interpretation of good men, though that be one good and ... JOHN DONNE The two men had a conversation. Brief, cryptic, to the point. As though they had exchanged numbers a... ARUNDHATI ROY There is not anything I know which hath done more mischief to Religion... than the disparaging of Re... JOSEPH GLANVILL …money and honour have no attraction for them; good men do not wish to be openly demanding payment... SOCRATES Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve o... THOMAS JEFFERSON There is no national problem in the world today, which cannot be resolved by reason alone. L. RON HUBBARD Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientifi... URSULA K. LEGUIN Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be... ALEXANDER HAMILTON Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be... ALEXANDER HAMILTON When reason and unreason come into contact, an electrical shock occurs. This is called polemics. KARL WILHELM FRIEDRICH SCHLEGEL See, people come into your life for a reason. They might not know it themselves, why. You might not ... JOYCE CAROL OATES Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. Because they know not the forces of nature, and in order that they may have comrades in their ignora... WILLIAM OF CONCHES We convince ourselves that happiness is an effect; that there has to be cause for it. That makes hap... R. N. PRASHER As for being somewhere you're not supposed to be--Maybe you're here for a reason, or there is no rea... TAMMARA WEBBER If there is a reason to be sorrowful, then there is a reason to be happy. You have only one lifetime... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Remember, you are where you're supposed to be at any given point and time of the day. The people aro... CELESTINE L. GRAY There's no better reason to be miserable than the reason of love. PRABHUDOSS SAMUEL Feast of Charles, King & Martyr, 1649 Whatever task God is calling us to, if it is yours, it is m... PAUL K. JEWETT They needed a reason why a little kid would commit murder, someone or something to point the finger ... RYū MURAKAMI Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ... GERMANY KENT Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there is one, he must more approve of ... THOMAS JEFFERSON Is it not lack of faith that leads men to fear the scrutiny of reason? If the destination is doubtfu... DONNA WOOLFOLK CROSS I believe that there is a Matrix and... to be more accurate I am in the Pornography Matrix. DEYTH BANGER There are some people that probably should be in the Hall of Fame, but they're not for some reas... GALE SAYERS It may indeed prove to be far the most difficult and not the least important task for human reason r... F.A. HAYEK It may be taken for granted that, rash as Americans usually are, when they are prudent, there is goo... JULES VERNE Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the politic... CHARLES DE SECONDAT But that is the way we are made: we don't reason, where we feel; we just feel. MARK TWAIN Courts are supposed to be places of reason. But this, of course, is a fantasy. I mean, there is reas... HELEN GARNER Some of these stories, it is understood, are not to be passed on to my father, because they would up... MARGARET ATWOOD Men are made in God's image, or so I am told. Likewise that we differ from the animals in having rea... DIANA GABALDON Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either you... KAHLIL GIBRAN Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is th... WILLIAM PENN Some men do as much begrudge others a good name, as they want one themselves: and perhaps that is th... WILLIAM PENN They wouldn't be heroes if they were infallible, in fact they wouldn't be heroes if they weren't mis... LESTER BANGS Religions are born and may die, but superstition in immortal. , THE AGE OF REASON BEGINS, 1950 Some people are each holding on to a lover of theirs who no longer loves them and/or who they no lon... MOKOKOMA MOKHONOANA Chemistry has been termed by the physicist as the messy part of physics, but that is no reason why t... FREDERICK SODDY When there is no reason to be happy, that's all the reason you need to happy SOTONYE ANGA If men were but to read the New Testament with the same tone and emphasis, with which they do other ... LYSANDER SPOONER There is one fairly good reason for fighting - and that is, if the other man starts it. You see, war... T.H. WHITE The tendency has always been strong to believe that whatever received a name must be an entity or be... JOHN STUART MILL The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is mean... IMMANUEL KANT They are out there campaigning and they know there is no chance of prosecution. It's another reason ... JOANNE MARINER Susie: Doesn't it make you feel kind of awesome that the world is beautiful for no other apparent re... MARTINE LEAVITT Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such an authority over us that we... ALBERT EINSTEIN Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason - the law which... EDWARD COKE Like Aristotle, conservatives generally accept the world as it is; they distrust the politics of abs... BENJAMIN WIKER All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how sma... ALBERT EINSTEIN The answer I've never had is why they were killed. There was no reason for them to be killed. BERNICE JOHNSON Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state. Ther... MAHATMA GANDHI Harrison has five or six that are really good. Walton and Pope scare me because they have a lot of d... DAVID REASON The biggest thing is to just get as much rest as possible. And if we can swim like we're capable of ... DAVID REASON Everyone that I hoped would qualify have already done so. We will have some kids swim a couple of ev... DAVID REASON Skepticism is thus a resting-place for human reason, where it can reflect upon its dogmatic wanderin... IMMANUEL KANT There is no reason why a king should be rich or a rich man should be a king, no reason at all. GERTRUDE STEIN There is no logical reason to believe in God. There are emotional reasons, certainly, but I cannot h... ANDREW DAVIDSON It may indeed prove to be far the most difficult and not the least important task for human reason r... FRIEDRICH A. HAYEK Study, along the lines which the theologies have mapped, will never lead us to discovery of the fund... THOMAS A. EDISON So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along ... RENé DESCARTES Action based on reason, action therefore which is only to be understood by reason, knows only one en... LUDWIG VON MISES The superstitious know how to reproach people for their vices better than they know how to teach the... BARUCH SPINOZA As far as I remember, even younger than eight, I have always been guided by reason. Not cold reason,... ALBERT CLAUDE It is only when you are asked to believe in Reason coming from non-reason that you must cry Halt. Hu... C.S. LEWIS I would think we have to ask the individual at the health department the reason for not disclosing i... GREG EDWARDS You're trying to find it. You're probably trying to find- the reason that you live- all by yourself.... NATSUKI TAKAYA They're an outstanding team and there is a reason that they are seeded No. 2. LANA TOMLIN How false is the conception, how frantic the pursuit, of that treacherous phantom which men call Lib... JOHN RUSKIN
More Samuel 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 When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to di... SAMUEL BUTLER The dons of Oxford and Cambridge are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anyth... SAMUEL 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 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 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 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 Life is the art of drawing sufficent conclusions from insufficient premises. SAMUEL BUTLER 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all. SAMUEL BUTLER Independence is essential for permanent but fatal to immediate success. SAMUEL BUTLER All animals except man know that the ultimate point of life is to enjoy it. -Samuel Butler. SAMUEL BUTLER The truest characters of ignorance are vanity, and pride and arrogance. SAMUEL BUTLER The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, but the unreasonable man tries to adapt the world to... SAMUEL BUTLER 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. SAMUEL BUTLER Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well. SAMUEL BUTLER Silence is not always tact, and it is tact that is golden, not silence. SAMUEL BUTLER Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature. SAMUEL BUTLER When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once. SAMUEL BUTLER Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds... SAMUEL BUTLER All philosophies, if you ride them, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others. SAMUEL BUTLER Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it. SAMUEL BUTLER Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and des... SAMUEL BUTLER People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or a... SAMUEL BUTLER God cannot alter the past, though historians can. SAMUEL BUTLER Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything els... SAMUEL BUTLER Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character. SAMUEL BUTLER The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that yo... SAMUEL BUTLER We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms. SAMUEL BUTLER Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely re... SAMUEL BUTLER Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. SAMUEL BUTLER Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficaci... SAMUEL BUTLER Having, then, once introduced an element of inconsistency into his system, he was far too consistent... SAMUEL BUTLER We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the m... SAMUEL BUTLER Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ h... SAMUEL BUTLER A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing. SAMUEL BUTLER It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has sh... SAMUEL BUTLER A physician's physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric's di... SAMUEL BUTLER A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and... SAMUEL BUTLER In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfyin... SAMUEL BUTLER Words are clothes that thoughts wear SAMUEL BUTLER The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is SAMUEL BUTLER The three most important parts a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money and his religiou... SAMUEL BUTLER All progress is based on a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its ... SAMUEL BUTLER There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every... SAMUEL BUTLER People care more about being thought to have taste than about being good, clever, or amiable. SAMUEL BUTLER A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg. SAMUEL BUTLER It does not matter much what a man hates provided he hates something. SAMUEL BUTLER If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue. SAMUEL BUTLER Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. SAMUEL BUTLER Logic is like the sword: those who appeal to it shall perish by it. SAMUEL BUTLER An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has wri... 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 Then he saw also that it matters little what profession, whether of religion or irreligion, a man ma... SAMUEL BUTLER All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it. SAMUEL BUTLER It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as tr... SAMUEL BUTLER Neither have they hearts to stay. Nor wit enough to run away. SAMUEL BUTLER Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises SAMUEL BUTLER If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised t... SAMUEL BUTLER I consider being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill. 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 It is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mould our lives and th... SAMUEL BUTLER There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought. SAMUEL BUTLER Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a tr... SAMUEL BUTLER Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in th... SAMUEL BUTLER A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy. SAMUEL BUTLER Though wisdom cannot be gotten for gold, still less can be gotten without it. SAMUEL BUTLER For Wealth are all things that conduce, to one's destruction or their use. A standard both to buy an... 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, i... SAMUEL BUTLER An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case; God ha... SAMUEL BUTLER The wish to spread those opinions that we hold conducive to our own welfare is so deeply rooted in ... SAMUEL BUTLER To swallow gudgeons ere they're catched, And count their chickens ere they're hatched SAMUEL BUTLER People are lucky and unlucky...according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been ... SAMUEL BUTLER Quoth Hudibras, I smell a rat; Ralpho, thou dost prevaricate SAMUEL BUTLER Quoth Hudibras, Friend Ralph, thou hast Outrun the constable at last SAMUEL BUTLER