Quote

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

Samuel Butler

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Samuel Butler
Age: 66 †
Born: 1835
Born: December 4
Died: 1902
Died: June 18
Farmer
Novelist
Painter
Photographer
Poet
Science Fiction Writer
Translator
Writer
Notts
Cellarius
Looks
Second
First
Hand
Enough
Upon
Men
Culture
Hands
Able
Look
Cultured
Firsts
Suspicion

More quotes by Samuel Butler

Image
Oaths are but words, and words are but wind.
Samuel Butler
Image
Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.
Samuel Butler
Image
To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead.
Samuel Butler
Image
Nature. As the word is now commonly used it excludes nature's most interesting productions-the works of man. Nature is usually taken to mean mountains, rivers, clouds and undomesticated animals and plants. I am not indifferent to this half of nature, but it interests me much less than the other half.
Samuel Butler
Image
Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch a cold on overexposure.
Samuel Butler
Image
Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since.
Samuel Butler
Image
From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.
Samuel Butler
Image
Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.
Samuel Butler
Image
He that complies against his will, Is of his own opinion still.
Samuel Butler
Image
An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him for when he is once possessed with an error, it is, like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty.
Samuel Butler
Image
The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.
Samuel Butler
Image
The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.
Samuel Butler
Image
How often do we not see children ruined through the virtues, real or supposed, of their parents?
Samuel Butler
Image
Since God himself cannot change the past, He is obliged to tolerate the existence of historians.
Samuel Butler
Image
Let us eat and drink neither forgetting death unduly nor remembering it. The Lord hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, etc., and the less we think about it the better.
Samuel Butler
Image
Our own death is a premium which we must pay for the far greater benefit we have derived from the fact that so many people have not only lived but also died before us.
Samuel Butler
Image
Let man be true and every god a liar.
Samuel Butler
Image
Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.
Samuel Butler
Image
If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention to him.
Samuel Butler
Image
No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.
Samuel Butler