Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.
Samuel ButlerRead
People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People value their image and how others perceive their taste more than their actual qualities or virtues.
This quote suggests that individuals prioritize the perception of having good taste over being recognized for their inherent goodness, intelligence, or likability. It reflects a societal tendency to place higher importance on external judgments and trends rather than on authenticity or personal virtues.
Themes
TastePerceptionSocietyImageValues
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about fashion trends, this quote could highlight how much effort people put into looking stylish.
More from Samuel Butler
All quotes βTo know God better is only to realize how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish to deny him, or define him.
Samuel ButlerRead
Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.
Samuel ButlerRead
An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.
Samuel ButlerRead
Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.
Samuel ButlerRead
A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.
Samuel ButlerRead
Similar quotes
To be sure, the response of faith to revelation, which God grants to the creature he chooses and moves with his love, occurs in such a way that it is truly the creature that provides the response, with its own nature and its natural powers of love.
Hans Urs Von BalthasarRead
The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.
James A. BaldwinRead
In his essay, βPerpetual Peace,β the philosopher, Immanuel Kant, argued that perpetual peace would eventually come to the world in one of two ways, by human insight or by conflicts and catastrophes of a magnitude that left humanity no other choice. We are at such a juncture.
Henry A. KissingerRead
Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats.
Victor HugoRead
All this struggling and striving to make the world better is a great mistake. Not that it's wrong to try to improve the world if you know how but simply because struggling and striving are the worst possible ways to go about doing anything!
George Bernard ShawRead
We believe in the dignity of man as an individual, whatever his race, colour or creed, and his right to better, fuller, and richer life.
Lal Bahadur ShastriRead