
“A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears.”
What Are Masterpieces and Why Are There So Few of Them (1936), Afterword of a later edition
“A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears.”
What Are Masterpieces and Why Are There So Few of Them (1936), Afterword of a later edition
Source: The Lights in the Sky Are Stars (1953), Chapter 3, “1999” (p. 230)
“Why should man be afraid to think, and why should he fear to express his thoughts?”
Heretics and Heresies (1874)
Context: Why should man be afraid to think, and why should he fear to express his thoughts?
Is it possible that an infinite Deity is unwilling that a man should investigate the phenomena by which he is surrounded? Is it possible that a god delights in threatening and terrifying men? What glory, what honor and renown a god must win on such a field! The ocean raving at a drop; a star envious of a candle; the sun jealous of a fire-fly.
The Principles of Success in Literature (1865)
Context: The selective instinct of the artist tells him when his language should be homely, and when it should be more elevated; and it is precisely in the imperceptible blending of the plain with the ornate that a great writer is distinguished. He uses the simplest phrases without triviality, and the grandest without a suggestion of grandiloquence.
The Philosopher
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XI - Cash and Credit
Speech on being elected to the Belgian Academy, as quoted in “Lady of Letters” Pt. 4, Earthly Paradise (1966) ed. Robert Phelps
Wallace Brett Donham (1952). Administration and blind spots: the biography of an adventurous idea. p. 3
“He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of dispute.”
Source: Human, All Too Human