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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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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
Imagination
Seldom
Consolations
Hope
Forced
Deficiencies
Desire
Enjoyment
Deficiency
Seems
Fill
Recollection
Able
Expectations
Consolation
Men
Seek
Anticipation
Time
Fate
Supply
Present
Immediate
Futurity

More quotes by 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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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.
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Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch a cold on overexposure.
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Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.
Samuel Butler
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The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.
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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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[P]oetry resembles metaphysics: one does not mind one's own, but one does not like anyone else's.
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If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good deal less sorrow in the world a hundred years hence.
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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.
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Business should be like religion and science it should know neither love nor hate.
Samuel Butler
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Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration at the time. True inspiration always steals on a person its importance not being fully recognized for some time.
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The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously.
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God and the Devil are an effort after specialisation and division of labour.
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The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.
Samuel Butler
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A man's friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage - but they are also no less invalidated by the marriage of his friends.
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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.
Samuel Butler
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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.
Samuel Butler
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Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.
Samuel Butler
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The only living works are those which have drained much of the author's own life into them.
Samuel Butler
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To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead.
Samuel Butler