Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

This aphorism is widely attributed to Samuel Butler (1835–1902) and is typically encountered as a standalone maxim in quotation collections rather than as a line firmly anchored to a single, easily verifiable publication context. Butler’s writing—especially his satirical and skeptical essays—often targets the pretensions of certainty in religion, science, and social convention, and he repeatedly emphasizes how human beings must act and judge under conditions of partial knowledge. The sentiment fits that intellectual milieu: in ordinary life, decisions cannot wait for perfect evidence, so people habitually infer, generalize, and commit themselves on the basis of incomplete information.

The aphorism treats living as a practical craft rather than a deductive science. “Insufficient premises” suggests that our evidence, assumptions, and data about the world are always partial; yet life demands decisions and interpretations anyway. The “art” lies in forming conclusions that are “sufficient” not because they are logically certain, but because they work well enough to guide action under uncertainty. Butler’s phrasing also carries a satirical edge: human beings routinely overgeneralize from scant evidence, and what passes for wisdom is often skilled guesswork. The line anticipates modern ideas about bounded rationality and probabilistic reasoning in ordinary life.