Samuel Butler

If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.

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

A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand.

Let man be true and every god a liar.

If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good deal less sorrow in the world a hundred years hence.

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

I never knew a writer yet who took the smallest pains with his style and was at the same time readable.

For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

Is life worth living? This is a question for an embryo not for a man.

To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.

We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself.

Look before you leap for as you sow, ye are like to reap.

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.

Parents are the last people on earth who ought to have children.

Life is not an exact science, it is an art.

The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.

Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.

Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in actual use.