Samuel Butler quotes
Samuel Butler (1612–1680): English poet and satirist. The library holds 141 quotes by Samuel Butler, drawn from Hudibras, Misc. Thoughts, Miscellaneous Thoughts and other works. The 60 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: humour, love, art, faith, nature, power
The best-known Samuel Butler quotes
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For rhyme the rudder is of verses, With which, like ships, they steer their courses.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 463 -
He knew what’s what, and that’s as high As metaphysic wit can fly.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 149 -
For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 81 -
Ay me! what perils do environ The man that meddles with cold iron!
Hudibras, Part i. Canto iii. Line 1 -
Doubtless the pleasure is as great Of being cheated as to cheat.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto iii. Line 1 -
I am not now in fortune’s power: He that is down can fall no lower.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto iii. Line 877 -
He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still.
Hudibras, Part iii. Canto iii. Line 547 -
For all a rhetorician’s rules Teach nothing but to name his tools.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 89 -
For truth is precious and divine,—Too rich a pearl for carnal swine.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto ii. Line 257 -
The sun had long since in the lap Of Thetis taken out his nap, And, like a lobster boil’d, the morn From black to red began to turn.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto ii. Line 29 -
For those that fly may fight again, Which he can never do that’s slain.
Hudibras, Part iii. Canto iii. Line 243 -
And prove their doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 199 -
True as the dial to the sun, Although it be not shin’d upon.
Hudibras, Part iii. Canto ii. Line 175 -
For he by geometric scale Could take the size of pots of ale.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 121 -
Cheer’d up himself with ends of verse And sayings of philosophers.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto iii. Line 1011 -
Why should not conscience have vacation As well as other courts o’ th’ nation?
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto ii. Line 317 -
What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was prov’d true before Prove false again? Two hundred more.
Hudibras, Part iii. Canto i. Line 1277 -
Still amorous and fond and billing, Like Philip and Mary on a shilling.
Hudibras, Part iii. Canto i. Line 687 -
And pulpit, drum ecclesiastick, Was beat with fist instead of a stick.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 11 -
With mortal crisis doth portend My days to appropinque an end.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto iii. Line 589 -
Compound for sins they are inclined to, By damning those they have no mind to.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 215 -
Whatever sceptic could inquire for, For every why he had a wherefore.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 131 -
Love in your hearts as idly burns As fire in antique Roman urns.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. Line 309 -
But still his tongue ran on, the less Of weight it bore, with greater ease.
Hudibras, Part iii. Canto ii. Line 443 -
For he that has but impudence, To all things has a fair pretence; And, put among his wants but shame, To all the world may lay his claim.
Misc. Thoughts, Line 17 -
Justice, while she winks at crimes, Stumbles on innocence sometimes.
Hudibras -
Quoth she, I’ve heard old cunning stagers Say fools for arguments use wagers.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. Line 297 -
With many a stiff thwack, many a bang, Hard crab-tree and old iron rang.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto ii. Line 831 -
And now the saints began their reign, For which they’d yearn’d so long in vain, And felt such bowel-hankerings, To see an empire, all of kings.
Hudibras, Pt. iii., Canto ii., Line 237 -
Oaths were not purpos’d, more than law, To keep the good and just in awe, But to confine the bad and sinful, Like moral cattle, in a pinfold.
Hudibras, Pt. ii., Canto ii., Line 197 -
The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty, For want of fighting was grown rusty, And ate into itself, for lack Of somebody to hew and hack.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 359 -
Such as take lodgings in a head That’s to be let unfurnished.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 161 -
He was in logic a great critic, Profoundly skill’d in analytic; He could distinguish and divide A hair ’twixt south and south-west side.
Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto i., Line 65 -
Do not your juries give their verdict As if they felt the cause, not heard it? And as they please make matter of fact Run all on one side as they’re packt.
Hudibras, Pt. ii., Canto ii., Line 365 -
Nature has made man’s breast no windows To publish what he does within doors, Nor what dark secrets there inhabit, Unless his own rash folly blab it.
Hudibras -
In all the trade of war, no feat Is nobler than a brave retreat; For those that run away, and fly, Take place at least of the enemy.
Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto iii., Line 607 -
When pious frauds and holy shifts Are dispensations and gifts.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto iii. Line 1145 -
He that imposes an oath makes it, Not he that for convenience takes it; Then how can any man be said To break an oath he never made?
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto ii. Line 377 -
He could distinguish and divide A hair ’twixt south and southwest side.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 67 -
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.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto i. Line 221 -
He that complies against his will, is of the same opinion still.
Hudibras -
He that imposes an oath makes it, Not he that for convenience takes it.
Hudibras -
But still his tongue ran on, the less Of weight it bore, with greater ease And with its everlasting clack, Set all men’s ears upon the rack.
Hudibras, Pt. iii., Canto ii., Line 443 -
Why should not Conscience have vacation As well as other courts o’ th’ nation? Have equal power to adjourn, Appoint appearance and return?
Hudibras, Pt. II. Canto II -
Have always been at daggers-drawing, And one another clapper-clawing.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto ii. Line 79 -
And force them, though it was in spite Of Nature and their stars, to write.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 647 -
He made an instrument to know If the moon shine at full or no.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto iii. Line 261 -
Night is the Sabbath of mankind, To rest the body and the mind.
Hudibras -
For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope. For all a rhetorician’s rules Teach nothing but to name his tools.
Hudibras, Pt. 1. Canto 1 -
He could distinguish and divide A hair ’twixt south and south-west side.
Hudibras -
For as a fly that goes to bed Rests with his tail above his head, So, in this mongrel state of ours, The rabble are the supreme powers.
Hudibras -
With books and money plac’d for show Like nest-eggs to make clients lay, And for his false opinion pay.
Hudibras, Part iii. Canto iii. Line 624 -
Synods are mystical bear-gardens, Where elders, deputies, church-wardens, And other members of the court, Manage the Babylonish sport.
Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto iii., Line 1095 -
Nor do I know what is become Of him, more than the Pope of Rome.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto iii. Line 263 -
We grant, although he had much wit, He was very shy of using it.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto i. Line 45 -
’Cause grace and virtue are within Prohibited degrees of kin; And therefore no true saint allows They shall be suffer’d to espouse.
Hudibras, Part iii. Canto i. Line 1293 -
If he that in the field is slain Be in the bed of honour lain, He that is beaten may be said To lie in honour’s truckle-bed.
Hudibras, Part i. Canto iii. Line 1047 -
Justice gives sentence many times On one man for another’s crimes.
Hudibras -
Saints themselves will sometimes be, Of gifts that cost them nothing, free.
Hudibras, Pt. i., Canto i., Line 495 -
There’s but the twinkling of a star Between a man of peace and war.
Hudibras, Part ii. Canto iii. Line 957
Where these quotes come from
- Hudibras (104 quotes)
- Misc. Thoughts (5 quotes)
- Miscellaneous Thoughts (2 quotes)
- Hadibras (1 quote)
- Hudibras to Sidrophel (1 quote)
- Fragments (1 quote)
- Sat. on Abuse of Human Learning (1 quote)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .