{"author":"Samuel Butler","author_id":"Samuel+Butler","total_quotes":153,"quotes":[{"text":"The public do not know enough to be experts  yet know enough to decide between them.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["knowledge"],"id":70,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["liars","lying"],"id":5355,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you  but he will make a fool of himself too.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["animals"],"id":9438,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"Self-preservation is the first law of nature.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["law","first "],"id":10820,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"All progress is based upon a universal  innate desire on the part of every living organism to live beyond its income.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["inspirational"],"id":14959,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"Embryos think with each stage of their development that they have now reached the only condition that really suits them. This, they say, must certainly be their last, inasmuch as its close will be so great a shock that nothing can survive it. Every change is a shock; every shock is a pro tanto death. What we call death is only a shock great enough to destroy our power to recognize a past and a present as resembling one another. ","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["death"],"id":25812,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"Exploring is delightful to look forward to and back upon, but it is not comfortable at the time, unless it be of such an easy nature as not to deserve the name.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["adventure","exploration","true-adventure"],"id":28857,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"I do not mind lying  but I hate inaccuracy.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["liars","lying"],"id":29428,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"Mr. Tennyson has said that more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of, but he wisely refrains from saying whether they are good or bad things.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["good","prayer","world "],"id":31732,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"},{"text":"People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.","author":"Samuel Butler","tags":["people","lucky","between "],"id":34924,"author_id":"Samuel+Butler"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":153,"pages":16,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}