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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
Realizing
Impossible
Better
Ever
Childish
Define
Deny
Realize

More quotes by 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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There should be asylums for habitual teetotalers, but they would probably relapse into teetotalism as soon as they got out.
Samuel Butler
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He dons are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything.
Samuel Butler
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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.
Samuel Butler
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Opinions have vested interests just as men have.
Samuel Butler
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You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.
Samuel Butler
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People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.
Samuel Butler
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If life must not be taken too seriously, then so neither must death.
Samuel Butler
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It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.
Samuel Butler
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A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.
Samuel Butler
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The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
Samuel Butler
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Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it.
Samuel Butler
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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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God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch.
Samuel Butler
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Neither have they hearts to stay, nor wit enough to run away.
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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Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty, bodily or mental.
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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There is no such source of error as the pursuit of absolute truth.
Samuel Butler
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Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.
Samuel Butler