Samuel Butler Quotes

Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket, and the older he grows, the more things will he promptly consign to read more

Everyone should keep a mental wastepaper basket, and the older he grows, the more things will he promptly consign to it.

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like
a turnip. There is nothing good read more

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like
a turnip. There is nothing good of him but that which is
underground.

He'd undertake to prove, by force
Of argument, a man's no horse.
He'd prove a buzzard is read more

He'd undertake to prove, by force
Of argument, a man's no horse.
He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl,
And that a Lord may be an owl,
A calf an Alderman, a goose a Justice,
And rooks, Committee-men or Trustees.

The extremes of glory and of shame, Like east and west, become the same No Indian prince has to his read more

The extremes of glory and of shame, Like east and west, become the same No Indian prince has to his palace - More followers than a thief to the gallows

Synods are mystical Bear-gardens.
Where Elders, Deputies, Church-wardens,
And other Members of the Court,
read more

Synods are mystical Bear-gardens.
Where Elders, Deputies, Church-wardens,
And other Members of the Court,
Manage the Babylonish sport.

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

Quoth Sidrophel, If you suppose,
Sir Knight, that I am one of those,
I might suspect, and read more

Quoth Sidrophel, If you suppose,
Sir Knight, that I am one of those,
I might suspect, and take th' alarm,
You bus'ness is but to inform;
But if it be, 'tis ne'er the near,
You have a wrong sow by the ear.

As if Religion were intended
For nothing else but to be mended.

As if Religion were intended
For nothing else but to be mended.

The Roman senate, when within
The city walls an owl was seen,
Did cause their clergy, with read more

The Roman senate, when within
The city walls an owl was seen,
Did cause their clergy, with lustrations
. . . .
The round-fac'd prodigy t' avert,
From doing town or country hurt.

This was the penn'worth of his thought.

This was the penn'worth of his thought.