Samuel Butler

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.
– Samuel Butler

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.
– Samuel Butler

The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemtible than the bore.
– Samuel Butler

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

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.
– Samuel Butler

All animals except man know that the ultimate goal of life is to enjoy it.
– Samuel Butler

The advantage of doing one’s praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and
exactly in the right places.
– Samuel Butler

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

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live
beyond its income.
– Samuel Butler

It is far safer to know too little than too much. People will condemn the one, though they will
resent being called upon to exert themselves to follow the other.
– Samuel Butler

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

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

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

God is love – I dare say. But what a mischievous devil Love is!
– Samuel Butler

One great reason why clergymen’s households are generally unhappy is because the clergyman
is so much at home or close about the house.
– Samuel Butler

The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is
cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.
– Samuel Butler

Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
– Samuel Butler

Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration at the time. True inspiration always
steals on a person, its importance not being fully recognized for some time.
– Samuel Butler

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will
he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.
– Samuel Butler

You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.
– Samuel Butler

Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell it.
– Samuel Butler