Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims that he intends to eat until he eats them.

More from Samuel Butler

• To me it seems that youth is like spring, an overpraised season-delightful if it happen to be a favoured one, but in practice very rarely favoured and more remarkable, as a general rule, for biting east winds than genial breezes.
• To me it seems that youth is like spring, an overpraised season-delightful if it happen to be a favoured one, but in practice very rarelyfavoured and more remarkable, as a general rule, for biting east winds than genial breezes.
• Accept loss forever
• A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
• A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us. Essays, "Character," 1844