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To know God better is only to realize how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish to deny him, or define him.

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
Impossible
Better
Ever
Childish
Define
Deny
Realize
Realizing

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The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them.
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It is tact that is golden, not silence.
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There are two classes [of scientists], those who want to know, and do not care whether others think they know or not, and those who do not much care about knowing, but care very greatly about being reputed as knowing.
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Life is one long process of getting tired.
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God and the Devil are an effort after specialisation and division of labour.
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I believe that he was really sorry that people would not believe he was sorry that he was not more sorry.
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Man is God's highest present development. He is the latest thing in God.
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The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.
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History is a bucket of ashes.
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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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People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy.
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Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such.
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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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People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.
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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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If you follow reason far enough it always leads to conclusions that are contrary to reason.
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Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.
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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.
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He that complies against his will, Is of his own opinion still.
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Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions.
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