A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.
Samuel Butler

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 Butler

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

A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.
Samuel Butler

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.
Samuel Butler

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

A physician's physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric's divinity has to his power of influencing conduct.
Samuel Butler

A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those worth committing.
Samuel Butler

A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war.
Samuel Butler

A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy.
Samuel Butler

Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.
Samuel Butler

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.
Samuel Butler

All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it.
Samuel Butler

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.
Samuel Butler

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

All truth is not to be told at all times.
Samuel Butler

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 Butler

And so there is no God but has been in the loins of past gods.
Samuel Butler

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.
Samuel Butler