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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.

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
Without
Prayers
Take
Seriously
Children
Atheism
Men
Comfort
Prayer
Religion
Use
Easy
Dolls

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Since God himself cannot change the past, He is obliged to tolerate the existence of historians.
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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.
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The seven deadly sins: Want of money, bad health, bad temper, chastity, family ties, knowing that you know things, and believing in the Christian religion.
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To know God better is only to realize how impossible it is that we should ever know him at all. I know not which is more childish to deny him, or define him.
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The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.
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Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderate use rather than total abstinence.
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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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Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.
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Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since.
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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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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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Life is one long process of getting tired.
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A lawyer's dream of heaven: every man reclaimed his property at the resurrection, and each tried to recover it from all his forefathers.
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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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Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.
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Books want to be born: I never make them. They come to me and insist on being written, and on being such and such.
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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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A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.
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He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.
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