Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we have got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst of them.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. Samuel Butler's Notebooks (1951).)

Entertaining angels unawares: It is always we who are to entertain the angels, and never they us. I cannot, however, think that an angel would be a very entertaining person, either as guest or host.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. First published in 1912. Samuel Butler's Notebooks, p. 154, E.P. Dutton & Company (1951).)

I have been told lately that Fuseli was travelling by coach and a gentleman opposite him said: "I understand, Mr. Fuseli, that you are a painter; it may interest you to know that I have a daughter who paints on velvet."
Fuseli rose instantly and said in a strong foreign accent, "Let me get out."

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. First published in 1912. Samuel Butler's Notebooks, p. 298, E.P. Dutton & Company (1951).)

The healthy stomach is nothing if it is not conservative. Few radicals have good digestions.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. Samuel Butler's Notebooks, p. 90 (1951).)

A genius can never expect to have a good time anywhere, if he is a genuine article, but America is about the last place in which life will be endurable at all for an inspired writer of any kind.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. Samuel Butler's Notebooks, p. 257 (1951).)

Christianity was only a very strong and singularly well-timed Salvation Army movement that happened to receive help from an unusual and highly dramatic incident. It was a Puritan reaction in an age when, no doubt, a Puritan reaction was much wanted; but like all sudden violent reactions, it soon wanted reacting against.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. First published in 1912. Samuel Butler's Notebooks, p. 186, E.P. Dutton & Company (1951).)

Man is a jelly which quivers so much as to run about.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. First published in 1912. Samuel Butler's Notebooks, p. 129, E.P. Dutton & Company (1951).)

Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. First published in 1912. Samuel Butler's Notebooks, p. 201, E.P. Dutton & Company (1951).)

A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. Samuel Butler's Notebooks, p. 88 (1951).)

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

(Samuel Butler (1835-1902), British author. Notebooks, "Life," (1912).)