Quote

When a man is in doubt about this or that in his writing, it will often guide him if he asks himself how it will tell a hundred years hence.

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
Years
Guide
Men
Guides
Hundred
Doubt
Asks
Often
Tell
Writing
Hence

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Adversity, if a man is set down to it by degrees, is more supportable with equanimity by most people than any great prosperity arrived at in a single lifetime.
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The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.
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There is such a thing as doing good that evil may come.
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He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.
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Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.
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Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions.
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There is a photographer in every bush, going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
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The course of true anything never does run smooth.
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[P]oetry resembles metaphysics: one does not mind one's own, but one does not like anyone else's.
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God and the Devil are an effort after specialisation and division of labour.
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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.
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They say the test of [literary power] is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, Can he name a kitten? And by this test I am condemned, for I cannot.
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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.
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The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.
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The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.
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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.
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Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.
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If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.
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The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.
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He is greatest who is most often in men's good thoughts.
Samuel Butler