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
I believe that more unhappiness comes from this source than from any other--I mean from the attempt to prolong family connections unduly and to make people hang together artificially who would never naturally do so
Because they did not see merit where they should have seen it, people, to express their regret, will go and leave a lot of money to the very people who will be the first to throw stones at the next person who has anything to say and finds a difficulty in getting a hearing.
In old times people used to try and square the circle; now they try and devise schemes for satisfying the Irish nation.
Christ: I dislike him very much. Still, I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band of people whose profession is to hoodwink us about him.
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.
People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable.
The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.
Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.
People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.
My main wish is to get my books into other people's rooms, and to keep other people's books out of mine.
People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.
Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime
Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.
People are lucky and unlucky...according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.