One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once. – Samuel Butler
Marriage is distinctly and repeatedly excluded from heaven. Is this because it is thought likely to mar the general felicity? – Samuel Butler
Silence is not always tact, but it is tact that is golden, not silence. – Samuel Butler
Lying has a kind of respect and reverence with it. We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him. – Samuel Butler
When a man and a woman have an overwhelming passion for each other, it seems to me, in spite of such obstacles dividing them as parents or husband, that they belong to each other in the name of Nature, and are lovers by Divine right, in spite of human convention or the laws. – Nicolas Chamfort