Quote

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.

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
Cannot
Literary
Power
Test
Writing
Cat
Men
Tests
Name
Inscription
Names
Inscriptions
Whether
Kitten
Write
Condemned

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Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.
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He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.
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The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.
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Oaths are but words, and words are but wind.
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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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Let man be true and every god a liar.
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Adversity, if a man is set down to it by degrees, is more supportable with equanimity by most people than any great prosperity arrived at in a single lifetime.
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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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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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Letters are like wine if they are sound they ripen with keeping. A man should lay down letters as he does a cellar of wine.
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The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them.
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There is such a thing as doing good that evil may come.
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It is death, and not what comes after death, that men are generally afraid of.
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God was satisfied with his own work, and that is fatal.
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History is a bucket of ashes.
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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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