413 Quotes by Samuel Butler

Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.

This world is like Noah's Ark. In which few men but many beasts embark.

Learning is like a great house that requires a great charge to keep it in repair

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

Prayers are to men as dolls are to children. They are not without use and comfort, but it is not easy to take them very seriously.

Silence is not always tact, but it is tact that is golden, not silence.

A friend who cannot at a pinch remember a thing or two that never happened is as bad as one who does not know how to forget.

Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.

One who is proud of ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is underground