Samuel Butler (novelist) - Truth Quotes

9 Sourced Quotes

View all Samuel Butler Quotes
Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

Samuel Butler
Some men love truth so much that they seem to be in continual fear lest she should catch cold on over-exposure.

Samuel Butler
There is no such source of error as the pursuit of absolute truth.

Samuel Butler
Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and professional truth-tellers. The world is an attempt to make the best of both.

Samuel Butler
We know so well what we are doing ourselves and why we do it, do we not? I fancy that there is some truth in the view which is being put forward nowadays, that it is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions which mainly mould our lives and the lives of those who spring from us.

Samuel Butler
Truth consists not in never lying but in knowing when to lie and when not to do so.

Samuel Butler
The pursuit of truth is chimerical. That is why it is so hard to say what truth is. There is no permanent absolute unchangeable truth; what we should pursue is the most convenient arrangement of our ideas.

Samuel Butler
Men take so much delight in lying, that truth is sometimes forced to disguise herself in the habit of falsehood to get entertainment, as in fables…by the ancients.

Samuel Butler
For error and mistake are infinite, But truth has but one way to be i' th' right.

Samuel Butler