It is a wise tune that knows its own father, and I like my music to be the legitimate offspring of respectable parents. – Samuel Butler
The public do not know enough to be experts, but know enough to decide between them. – Samuel Butler
An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among our old ones. We should have patience and see whether the incoherency is likely to wear off or to wear on, in which latter case the sooner we get rid of them the better. – Samuel Butler
The voice of the Lord is the voice of common sense, which is shared by all that is. – Samuel Butler
The apothegm is the most portable form of Truth…. It is thus that the proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly expended in the air. – William Gilmore Simms, Egeria: Or, Voices of Thought and Counsel for the Woods a