For most men, and most circumstances, pleasure --tangible material prosperity in this world --is the safest test of virtue. Progress has ever been through the pleasures rather than through the extreme sharp virtues, and the most virtuous have leaned to…

Quote by Samuel Butler

Topics: Love Quotes, Pleasure Quotes

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that...

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that...

We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms.

We shall never get people whose time is money to take much interest in atoms.

I am; therefore, I think.

I am; therefore, I think.

Women can stand a beating except when it is with their own weapons.

Women can stand a beating except when it is with their own weapons.

Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest...

Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest...

We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper,...

We are not won by arguments that we can analyse but by tone and temper,...

The advantage of doing one's praising to oneself is that one can lay it on...

The advantage of doing one's praising to oneself is that one can lay it on...

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

Opinions have vested interests just as men have.

Nobody shoots at Santa Claus.

Nobody shoots at Santa Claus.

If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good...

If people would dare to speak to one another unreservedly, there would be a good...

Friendship is like money, more easily made than kept.

Friendship is like money, more easily made than kept.

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to...

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to...

When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to...

When you've told someone that you've left them a legacy the only decent thing to...

And so there is no God but has been in the loins of past gods.

And so there is no God but has been in the loins of past gods.

A man's friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage - but they are also...

A man's friendships are, like his will, invalidated by marriage - but they are also...

Opinion governs all mankind, like the blind's leading of the blind

Opinion governs all mankind, like the blind's leading of the blind

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.

When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing...

When you have told anyone you have left him a legacy, the only decent thing...

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.

All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.