Samuel Butler

When the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness that he hath committed and doeth that which is neither quite lawful nor quite right, he will generally be found to have gained in amiability what he has lost in holiness.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

The advantage of doing one's praising for oneself is that one can lay it on so thick and exactly in the right places.

All animals but men know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it - and they do enjoy it as much as man and other circumstances will allow it.

Logic is like the sword - those who appeal to it shall perish by it.

God is Love, I dare say. But what a mischievous devil Love is.

It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.

It is better to have loved and lost than to never have lost at all.