"Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions"
About this Quote
Supreme occasions are supposed to manufacture greatness on demand: the stirring speech, the heroic decision, the sudden clarity. Butler punctures that fantasy with a line that lands like a cold splash of water. “Commonplace” isn’t just an insult here; it’s a diagnosis. Under maximum pressure, most people don’t become extraordinary - they default to their most conventional scripts, their safest cliches, their most rehearsed selves.
The bite is in “seldom more.” Butler isn’t claiming men are always dull; he’s saying the very moments we mythologize as peak tests of character often produce peak banality. That’s where the subtext turns moral: “supreme occasions” expose how dependent social life is on performance. When the stakes rise, originality becomes risky, and the crowd demands recognizability. We reach for stock phrases, inherited virtues, and approved gestures because they’re legible. The commonplace becomes a kind of social armor.
Context matters: Butler writes out of a Victorian world that loved solemn public ceremonies, moral posturing, and grand narratives of progress. His broader work is famously skeptical of institutional sincerity and the self-congratulating pieties of his age. Read that way, the line isn’t merely about individual cowardice; it’s about how “supreme occasions” are staged to reward conformity. The event calls for greatness, but the script calls for reassurance. Butler’s wit lies in showing how easily the sacred moment becomes a factory for the ordinary.
The bite is in “seldom more.” Butler isn’t claiming men are always dull; he’s saying the very moments we mythologize as peak tests of character often produce peak banality. That’s where the subtext turns moral: “supreme occasions” expose how dependent social life is on performance. When the stakes rise, originality becomes risky, and the crowd demands recognizability. We reach for stock phrases, inherited virtues, and approved gestures because they’re legible. The commonplace becomes a kind of social armor.
Context matters: Butler writes out of a Victorian world that loved solemn public ceremonies, moral posturing, and grand narratives of progress. His broader work is famously skeptical of institutional sincerity and the self-congratulating pieties of his age. Read that way, the line isn’t merely about individual cowardice; it’s about how “supreme occasions” are staged to reward conformity. The event calls for greatness, but the script calls for reassurance. Butler’s wit lies in showing how easily the sacred moment becomes a factory for the ordinary.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Samuel Butler — quotation attributed on Wikiquote (Samuel Butler page). |
More Quotes by Samuel
Add to List
