„Se la vita non deve essere presa troppo seriamente, la morte neppure.“
"Death"
Taccuini
Origine: Citato in Dizionario delle citazioni, a cura di Italo Sordi, BUR, 1992. ISBN 14603-X
Frasi di Samuel Butler
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Samuel Butler
Data di nascita: 4. Dicembre 1835
Data di morte: 18. Giugno 1902
Samuel Butler è stato uno scrittore inglese.
Samuel Butler è considerato dai critici un autore vittoriano iconoclasta. Tra le sue opere più famose troviamo l'opera satirica Erewhon e il romanzo postumo The Way of All Flesh . È anche noto per le sue analisi sulla ortodossia cristiana, per i suoi studi sulla teoria dell'evoluzione e dell'arte italiana e per i suoi scritti di storia e critica letteraria. Butler fu anche traduttore dell'Iliade e dell'Odissea di Omero. Wikipedia
Foto: Unknown author, GHP2@yahoogroups.com / Public domain
Frasi Samuel Butler
„È meglio aver amato e perduto che non aver mai amato.“
Taccuini
Origine: Citato in Dammi mille baci, e ancora cento. Le più belle citazioni sull'amore, a cura delle Redazioni Garzanti, Garzanti, 2013.
„I libri più vecchi, per chi non li ha letti, sono appena usciti.“
Origine: Citato in Dizionario delle citazioni, a cura di Italo Sordi, BUR, 1992. ISBN 14603-X
„Una cosa è certa, ed è il fatto che non possiamo dare niente per certo; perciò non è certo che non possiamo dare niente per certo.“
"First Principles"
Taccuini
Origine: Citato in Dizionario delle citazioni, a cura di Italo Sordi, BUR, 1992. ISBN 14603-X
„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.“
Incoherency of New Ideas
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIV - Higgledy-Piggledy
Contesto: 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.
„The written law is binding, but the unwritten law is much more so.“
The Law
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VII - On the Making of Music, Pictures, and Books
Contesto: The written law is binding, but the unwritten law is much more so. You may break the written law at a pinch and on the sly if you can, but the unwritten law — which often comprises the written — must not be broken. Not being written, it is not always easy to know what it is, but this has got to be done.
„There is an eternal antagonism of interest between the individual and the world at large.“
The Individual and the World
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part I - Lord, What is Man?
Contesto: There is an eternal antagonism of interest between the individual and the world at large. The individual will not so much care how much he may suffer in this world provided he can live in men’s good thoughts long after he has left it. The world at large does not so much care how much suffering the individual may either endure or cause in this life, provided he will take himself clean away out of men’s thoughts, whether for good or ill, when he has left it.
„If I were to start as a God or a prophet I think I should take the line: "Thou shalt not believe in me. Thou shalt not have me for a God.“
Samuel Butler's Notebooks (1912) self censored "d_____d" in original publication
Contesto: It is the manner of gods and prophets to begin: "Thou shalt have none other God or Prophet but me." If I were to start as a God or a prophet I think I should take the line: "Thou shalt not believe in me. Thou shalt not have me for a God. Thou shalt worship any d_____d thing thou likest except me." This should be my first and great commandment, and my second should be like unto it.
„As a general rule philosophy is like stirring mud or not letting a sleeping dog lie.“
Philosophy
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XX - First Principles
Contesto: As a general rule philosophy is like stirring mud or not letting a sleeping dog lie. It is an attempt to deny, circumvent or otherwise escape from the consequences of the interlacing of the roots of things with one another.
„I do not like having to try to make myself like things; I like things that make me like them at once and no trying at all.“
On Knowing what Gives us Pleasure, ii
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XIII - Unprofessional Sermons
Contesto: I should like to like Schumann’s music better than I do; I dare say I could make myself like it better if I tried; but I do not like having to try to make myself like things; I like things that make me like them at once and no trying at all.
„To think of a thing they must be got rid of: they are the clothes that thoughts wear—only the clothes. I say this over and over again, for there is nothing of more importance.“
Life and Habit http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/lfhb10h.htm, ch. 5 (1877)
Contesto: "Words, words, words," he writes, "are the stumbling-blocks in the way of truth. Until you think of things as they are, and not of the words that misrepresent them, you cannot think rightly. Words produce the appearance of hard and fast lines where there are none. Words divide; thus we call this a man, that an ape, that a monkey, while they are all only differentiations of the same thing. To think of a thing they must be got rid of: they are the clothes that thoughts wear—only the clothes. I say this over and over again, for there is nothing of more importance. Other men's words will stop you at the beginning of an investigation. A man may play with words all his life, arranging them and rearranging them like dominoes. If I could think to you without words you would understand me better."
„Genius…has been defined as a supreme capacity for taking trouble…It might be more fitly described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds and keeping them therein so long as the genius remains.“
Genius, i
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XI - Cash and Credit
„Ideas and opinions, like living organisms, have a normal rate of growth which cannot be either checked or forced beyond a certain point.“
The Art of Propagating Opinion
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part X - The Position of a HomoUnius Libri
Contesto: Ideas and opinions, like living organisms, have a normal rate of growth which cannot be either checked or forced beyond a certain point. They can be held in check more safely than they can be hurried. They can also be killed; and one of the surest ways to kill them is to try to hurry them.
„I find the nicest and best people generally profess no religion at all, but are ready to like the best men of all religions.“
Religion
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality
Contesto: Is there any religion whose followers can be pointed to as distinctly more amiable and trustworthy than those of any other? If so, this should be enough. I find the nicest and best people generally profess no religion at all, but are ready to like the best men of all religions.
„We can no longer separate things as we once could: everything tends towards unity; one thing, one action, in one place, at one time.“
Unity and Multitude
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part VI - Mind and Matter
Contesto: We can no longer separate things as we once could: everything tends towards unity; one thing, one action, in one place, at one time. On the other hand, we can no longer unify things as we once could; we are driven to ultimate atoms, each one of which is an individuality. So that we have an infinite multitude of things doing an infinite multitude of actions in infinite time and space; and yet they are not many things, but one thing.
