Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds.
—Samuel Butler
One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.
—Samuel Butler
Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness with others.
—Samuel Butler
People are lucky and unlucky … according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.
—Samuel Butler
Topics: Acceptance, Realistic Expectations
You can do very little with faith,
but you can do nothing without it.
—Samuel Butler
Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often.
—Samuel Butler
Topics: Life, Feelings
Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.
—Samuel Butler
Topics: Friendship
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.
—Samuel Butler
The want of money is the root of all evil.
—Samuel Butler
Topics: Money
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
The money men make lives after them.
—Samuel Butler
Topics: Money
To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious.
—Samuel Butler
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.
—Samuel Butler
Topics: Knowledge