Quote

Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.

Samuel Butler

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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
Love
Life
Chisel
Chisels
Quarry
Mold
Complete
Character

More quotes by Samuel Butler

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No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.
Samuel Butler
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Letters are like wine if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.
Samuel Butler
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Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.
Samuel Butler
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Nobody shoots at Santa Claus.
Samuel Butler
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There are two great rules of life the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can, in the end, get what he wants, if he only tries. That is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is, more or less, an exception to the rule.
Samuel Butler
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The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation.
Samuel Butler
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A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand.
Samuel Butler
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In practice it is seldom very hard to do one's duty when one knows what it is, but it is sometimes extremely difficult to find this out.
Samuel Butler
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Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.
Samuel Butler
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The wish to spread those opinions that we hold conducive to our own welfare is so deeply rooted in the English character that few of us can escape its influence.
Samuel Butler
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It is death, and not what comes after death, that men are generally afraid of.
Samuel Butler
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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
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When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to do is to die at once.
Samuel Butler
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Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.
Samuel Butler
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It seems to be the fate of man to seek all his consolations in futurity. The time present is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.
Samuel Butler
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The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next worst his reputation.
Samuel Butler
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Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.
Samuel Butler
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Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game as true as a dial to the sun, although it be not shined upon.
Samuel Butler
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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
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Logic is like the sword - those who appeal to it, shall perish by it.
Samuel Butler