Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Character
Escape
Deeply
Spread
English
Hold
Conducive
Influence
Rooted
Opinion
Opinions
Wish
Welfare

More quotes by Samuel Butler

Image
The human intellect owes its superiority over that of the lower animals in great measure to the stimulus which alcohol has given imagination.
Samuel Butler
Image
The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation.
Samuel Butler
Image
[P]oetry resembles metaphysics: one does not mind one's own, but one does not like anyone else's.
Samuel Butler
Image
Whereas, to borrow an illustration from mathematics, life was formerly an equation of, say, 100 unknown quantities, it is now one of 99 only, inasmuch as memory and heredity have been shown to be one and the same thing.
Samuel Butler
Image
We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper, by the manner which is the man himself.
Samuel Butler
Image
Opinions have vested interests just as men have.
Samuel Butler
Image
Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.
Samuel Butler
Image
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
Image
No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.
Samuel Butler
Image
The function of vice is to keep virtue within reasonable bounds.
Samuel Butler
Image
Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.
Samuel Butler
Image
Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.
Samuel Butler
Image
Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.
Samuel Butler
Image
Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity?
Samuel Butler
Image
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
Samuel Butler
Image
God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch.
Samuel Butler
Image
Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such.
Samuel Butler
Image
If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death by my own success.
Samuel Butler
Image
Mr. Tennyson has said that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, but he wisely refrains from saying whether they are good or bad things.
Samuel Butler
Image
The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.
Samuel Butler