
Detached Pages, entry for 1913
Journals 1889-1949
"The Railways and the State." https://archive.org/stream/essaysaddresses00oweniala#page/467/mode/2up In Essays and Addresses, Macmillan & Co., 1874, page 467.
Detached Pages, entry for 1913
Journals 1889-1949
“Though analogy is often misleading, it is the least misleading thing we have.”
Thought and Word, ii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VII - On the Making of Music, Pictures, and Books
“It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.”
Section 2 : Religion
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
Context: The symbols of religion are ciphers of which the key is to be found in moral experience. It is in vain we pore over the ciphers unless we possess the key.
To understand the meaning of a great religious teacher we must find in our own life experiences somewhat akin to his. To selfish, unprincipled persons whose heart is wholly set on worldly ends, what meaning, for instance, can such utterances have as these? "You must become like little children if you would possess the kingdom of heaven;" "You must be willing to lose your life in order to save it;" "If you would be first you must consent to be last." To the worldly-minded such words convey no sense whatever; they are, in fact, rank absurdity.?
“You cannot be big unless you are prepared to kiss the ground.”
Source: Letter to his daughter (1978), p. 15
Context: You cannot be big unless you are prepared to kiss the ground. You cannot defend the soil unless you know the smell of that soil. I know the smell of our soil. I know the rhythm of our rivers. I know the beat of our drums. The theories, the dogmas and the scripts stand outside the gates of history. The dominant factor is the aspiration of the people and the ability to seek total identification with it. Once the significance of the symphony is grasped, the lines fall into place, the dogmas and theories get legs to move in time to the majesty of that music. This does not mean that I am preaching pragmatism. There is a lot of expediency in pragmatism. I am trying to trace the roots of the problems, the genesis of the challenges, the cause of the struggle.
“Information's pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.”
As quoted in The International Thesaurus of Quotations (1970) edited by Rhoda Thomas Tripp
“A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.”
Introduction, p. 17
Elements of Rhetoric (1828)