Quote

In practice it is seldom very hard to do one's duty when one knows what it is, but it is sometimes extremely difficult to find this out.

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
Sometimes
Seldom
Extremely
Obligation
Duty
Practice
Difficult
Find
Hard

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Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions.
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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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In law, nothing is certain but the expense.
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If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue.
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He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.
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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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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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No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction.
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The worst thing that can happen to a man is to lose his money, the next worst his health, the next worst his reputation.
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Men should not try to overstrain their goodness more than any other faculty, bodily or mental.
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Man is the only animal that laughs and has a state legislature.
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Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds
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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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Don't learn to do, but learn in doing.
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Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.
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The history of art is the history of revivals.
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The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them.
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If God wants us to do a thing, he should make his wishes sufficiently clear. Sensible people will wait till he has done this before paying much attention to him.
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If a man knows not life which he hath seen, how shall he know death, which he hath not seen?
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Business should be like religion and science it should know neither love nor hate.
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