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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

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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
Life
Shown
Heredity
Whereas
Quantities
Unknown
Formerly
Mathematics
Equation
Memory
Illustration
Memories
Borrow
Science
Equations
Thing
Quantity
Inasmuch

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An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him for when he is once possessed with an error, it is, like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty.
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The human intellect owes its superiority over that of the lower animals in great measure to the stimulus which alcohol has given imagination.
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Prayers are to men as dolls are to children. They are not without use and comfort, but it is not easy to take them very seriously.
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The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.
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Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
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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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God cannot alter the past, though historians can.
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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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To die completely, a person must not only forget but be forgotten, and he who is not forgotten is not dead.
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The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way.
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Loyalty is still the same, whether it win or lose the game as true as a dial to the sun, although it be not shined upon.
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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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Life is one long process of getting tired.
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The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.
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Nobody shoots at Santa Claus.
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History is a bucket of ashes.
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People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.
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He is greatest who is most often in men's good thoughts.
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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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Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.
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