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The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation.

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
Stagnation
Absolutes
Absolute
Ethics
Morality

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Work with some men is as besetting a sin as idleness.
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Since God himself cannot change the past, He is obliged to tolerate the existence of historians.
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People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.
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If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue.
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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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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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When people talk of atoms obeying fixed laws, they are either ascribing some kind of intelligence and free will to atoms or they are talking nonsense. There is no obedience unless there is at any rate a potentiality of disobeying.
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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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It is not he who gains the exact point in dispute who scores most in controversy - but he who has shown the better temper.
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If we attend continually and promptly to the little that we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how little remains that we cannot do.
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Opinions have vested interests just as men have.
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A drunkard would not give money to sober people. He said they would only eat it, and buy clothes and send their children to school with it.
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God cannot alter the past, though historians can.
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You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.
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From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.
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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.
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Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty, bodily or mental.
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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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Let man be true and every god a liar.
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Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.
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