Quote

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

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
Men
Fool
Wisdom
Lying
Sense
Tell
Truth
Wells
Lied
Well
Requires

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We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself.
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A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.
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The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.
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You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.
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God was satisfied with his own work, and that is fatal.
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The extremes of vice and virtue are alike detestable, and absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is.
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In law, nothing is certain but the expense.
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The human intellect owes its superiority over that of the lower animals in great measure to the stimulus which alcohol has given imagination.
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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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Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity?
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Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.
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The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.
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The advantage of doing one's praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.
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Opinions have vested interests just as men have.
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People are always good company when they are doing what they really enjoy.
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If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death by my own success.
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Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one.
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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.
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History is a bucket of ashes.
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Since God himself cannot change the past, He is obliged to tolerate the existence of historians.
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