Quote#Nature
Happily common sense, though she is by nature the gentlest creature…
Quote bySamuel Butler · 1835–1902
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Erewhon (1872), Ch. 26.
English (original)
Happily common sense, though she is by nature the gentlest creature living, when she feels the knife at her throat, is apt to develop unexpected powers of resistance, and to send doctrinaires flying, even when they have bound her down and think they have her at their mercy.
— Samuel Butler
More from Samuel Butler
A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.
We can see nothing face to face; our utmost seeing is but a fumbling of blind finger-ends in an overcrowded pocket.
Stowed away in a Montreal lumber room The Discobolus standeth and turneth his face to the wall; Dusty, cobweb-covered, maimed and set at naught, Beauty crieth in an attic and no man regardeth: O God! O Montreal!
The Discobolus is put here because he is vulgar — He has neither vest nor pants with which to cover his limbs.
Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.