Samuel Butler (novelist) Quotes

The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.

people service

We meet people every day whose bodies are evidently those of men and women long dead, but whose appearance we know through their portraits.

appearance men people women

Is there any religion whose followers can be pointed to as distinctly more amiable and trustworthy than those of any other? If so, this should be enough. I find the nicest and best people generally profess no religion at all, but are ready to like the best men of all religions.

men people religion

I doubt whether any angel would find me very entertaining. As for myself, if ever I do entertain one it will have to be unawares. When people entertain others without an introduction they generally turn out more like devils than angels.

doubt people

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.

people

It is far safer to know too little than too much. People will condemn the one, though they will resent being called upon to exert themselves to follow the other.

people

Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime.

people

There are two classes of people in this world, those who sin, and those who are sinned against; if a man must belong to either, he had better belong to the first than to the second.

man people