Samuel Butler Quotes

For he could coin, or counterfeit New words, with little or no wit; Words so debas'd and hard, no stone Was hard enough to touch them on; And when with hasty noise he spoke 'em; The ignorant for current took 'em;

Some have been beaten till they know
What wood a cudgel's of by th' blow;
Some kick'd until they can feel whether
A shoe be Spanish or neat's leather.

The hollow-hearted, disaffected, And close malignant are detected ; Who lay their lives and fortunes down, For pledges to secure our own.

This Light inspires, and plays upon The nose of Saint like Bag-pipe drone, And speaks through hollow empty Soul, As through a Trunk, or whisp'ring hole, Such language as no mortal Ear But spiritual Eve-droppers can hear.

But still his tongue ran on, the less
Of weight it bore, with greater ease.

Love in your hearts as idly burns
As fire in antique Roman urns.

With many a stiff thwack, many a bang,
Hard crab-tree and old iron rang.

When pious frauds and holy shifts
Are dispensations and gifts.

There are more fools than knaves in the world, else the knaves would not have enough to live upon.

For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.

For those that run away and fly,
Take place at least o' the enemy.

With mortal crisis doth portend
My days to appropinque an end.

For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope; And when he happen'd to break off I' th' middle of his speech, or cough, H' had hard words,ready to show why, And tell what rules he did it by; Else, when with greatest art he spoke, You'd think he talk'd like other folk, For all a rhetorician's rules Teach nothing but to name his tools.

As the ancients
Say wisely, have a care o' th' main chance,
And look before you ere you leap;
For as you sow, ye are like to reap.

He made an instrument to know
If the moon shine at full or no.