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The most perfect humour and irony is generally quite unconscious.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Life and Habit
The history of art is the history of revivals.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Note Books
Very useless things we neglect, till they become old and useless enough to be put in Museums: and so very important things we study till, when they become important enough, we ignore them -- and rightly.
Life is one long process of getting tired.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Note Books
God is Love, I dare say. But what a mischievous devil Love is.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Note Books
An honest God's the noblest work of man.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Further Extracts from the Note Books
An apology for the Devil: It must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case. God has written all the books.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Note Books
Morality is the custom of one’s country and the current feeling of one’s peers. Cannibalism is moral in a cannibal country.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Note books
Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.
All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Note Books
Entertaining angels unawares: It is always we who are to entertain the angels, and never they us. I cannot, however, think that an angel would be a very entertaining person, either as guest or host.
The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.
The public buys its opinions as it buys its meat, or takes in its milk, on the principle that it is cheaper to do this than to keep a cow. So it is, but the milk is more likely to be watered.
SAMUEL BUTLER, Note Books
'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have lost at all.
SAMUEL BUTLER, The Way of All Flesh
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