Quote

When people talk of atoms obeying fixed laws, they are either ascribing some kind of intelligence and free will to atoms or they are talking nonsense. There is no obedience unless there is at any rate a potentiality of disobeying.

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
Kind
Laws
Potentiality
People
Unless
Obeying
Either
Atoms
Law
Nonsense
Talk
Obedience
Talking
Fixed
Free
Rate
Ascribing
Science
Intelligence
Disobeying

More quotes by Samuel Butler

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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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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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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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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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God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch.
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Since God himself cannot change the past, He is obliged to tolerate the existence of historians.
Samuel Butler
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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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He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.
Samuel Butler
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If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death by my own success.
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Life is one long process of getting tired.
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Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.
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Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.
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The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them.
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He dons are too busy educating the young men to be able to teach them anything.
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The only absolute morality is absolute stagnation.
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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.
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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Nobody shoots at Santa Claus.
Samuel Butler
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Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.
Samuel Butler
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Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.
Samuel Butler