The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt. – Samuel Butler
They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, ‘Can he name a kitten?’ – Samuel Butler
No mistake is more common and more fatuous than appealing to logic in cases which are beyond her jurisdiction. – Samuel Butler
It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of respectable parents. – Samuel Butler
People care more about being thought to have taste than about being thought either good, clever or amiable. – Samuel Butler
A physician’s physiology has much the same relation to his power of healing as a cleric’s divinity has to his power of influencing conduct. – Samuel Butler
The one serious conviction that a man should have is that nothing is to be taken too seriously. – Samuel Butler
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. – Samuel Butler
The only living works are those which have drained much of the author’s own life into them. – Samuel Butler
There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon. – Samuel Butler
A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those worth committing. – Samuel Butler
Vaccination is the medical sacrament corresponding to baptism. Whether it is or is not more efficacious I do not know. – 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. – Samuel Butler