Be virtuous and you will be vicious.
Samuel Butler

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.
Samuel Butler

Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.
Samuel Butler

Brigands demand your money or your life; women require both.
Samuel Butler

Christ and The Church: If he were to apply for a divorce on the grounds of cruelty, adultery and desertion, he would probably get one.
Samuel Butler

Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since.
Samuel Butler

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.
Samuel Butler

Death is only a larger kind of going abroad.
Samuel Butler

Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.
Samuel Butler

Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world.
Samuel Butler

Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.
Samuel Butler

Evil is like water, it abounds, is cheap, soon fouls, but runs itself clear of taint.
Samuel Butler

Faith - you can do very little with it, but you can do nothing without it.
Samuel Butler

Fear is static that prevents me from hearing myself.
Samuel Butler

For truth is precious and divine, too rich a pearl for carnal swine.
Samuel Butler

Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.
Samuel Butler

From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.
Samuel Butler

God and the Devil are an effort after specialization and the division of labor.
Samuel Butler

God as now generally conceived of is only the last witch.
Samuel Butler

God cannot alter the past, though historians can.
Samuel Butler