"Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."
"It seems to be the fate of man to seek all his consolations in futurity. The time present is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation."
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Source: Collected in H F Jones (ed) The Notebooks of Samuel Butler (1912).
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"Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning."
"If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death by my own success."
"Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule."
"Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud."
"Don't learn to do, but learn in doing."