Samuel Butler
Samuel Butler
Samuel Butlerwas an iconoclastic Victorian-era English author who published a variety of works. Two of his most famous pieces are the Utopian satire Erewhon and a semi-autobiographical novel published posthumously, The Way of All Flesh. He is also known for examining Christian orthodoxy, substantive studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history and criticism. Butler made prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, which remain in use to this day...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth4 December 1835
An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among our old ones. We should have patience and see whether the incoherency is likely to wear off or to wear on, in which latter case the
Such as take lodgings in a head that's to be let unfurnished.
Cat-Ideas and Mouse-Ideas. We can never get rid of mouse-ideas completely, they keep turning up again and again, and nibble, nibble-no matter how often we drive them off. The best way to keep them down is to have a few good strong cat-ideas which will embrace them and ensure their not reappearing till they do so in another shape.
A definition is the enclosing a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.
There is no permanent absolute unchangeable truth; what we should pursue is the most convenient arrangement of our ideas.
In matrimony, to hesitate is sometimes to be saved.
Eating is touch carried to the bitter end.
Still amorous, and fond, and billing, / Like Philip and Mary on a shilling.
Nothing is well done nor worth doing unless, take it all round, it has come pretty easily
If old Pontifex had had Cromwell's chances he would have done all that Cromwell did, and have done it better; if he had had Giotto's chances he would have done all that Giotto did, and done it no worse; as it was, he was a village carpenter, and I wi
I've known him for a long time, ... He's always been a man of integrity, always been a man of the community and the needs of the community, and the black community is going to stand behind him.
To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious.
Besides 'tis known he could speak Greek, As naturally as pigs squeak
Through perils both of wind and limb, Through thick and thin she followed him