Samuel Butler
“Life is one long process of getting tired.”
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, Chapter I — “Lord, What is Man?” (1912) — ed. Henry Festing Jones
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Samuel Butler
Source
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, Chapter I — “Lord, What is Man?” (1912) — ed. Henry Festing Jones
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About this line
It’s note vii under “Life,” in the first chapter of Butler’s notebooks. The notes around it are short and blunt. The one before opens “Life is a superstition.” The one after reads: “My days run through me as water through a sieve.”
He wrote these for himself. “One’s thoughts fly so fast that one must shoot them,” he explained; “it is no use trying to put salt on their tails.”
Why we carry this line
I hear some version of this all the time from family and friends. The question I always want to ask is: how do you repair yourself?
The design
The last word, “tired,” drops below the line and fades a shade. It reads like it ran out of steam.
Objects carrying this line
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