Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

517 Sourced Quotes

The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living; they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down.

Charles Caleb Colton
It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.

Charles Caleb Colton
He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.

Charles Caleb Colton
Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.

Charles Caleb Colton
Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship—never.

Charles Caleb Colton
As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.

Charles Caleb Colton
True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

Charles Caleb Colton
Analogy, although it is not infallible, is yet that telescope of the mind by which it is marvellously assisted in the discovery of both physical and moral truth.

Charles Caleb Colton
It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat; and worldly wisdom dictates to her disciples the propriety of dressing somewhat beyond their means, but of living somewhat within them,--for every one, sees how we dress, but none see how we live, except we choose to let them. But the truly great are, by universal suffrage, exempted from these trammels, an may live or dress as they please.

Charles Caleb Colton
None are so seldom found alone, and are so soon tired of their own company, as those coxcombs who are on the best terms with themselves.

Charles Caleb Colton
We must suit the flattery to the mind and taste of the recipient. We do not put essences into hogsheads, nor porter into phials. Delicate minds may be disgusted by compliments that would please a grosser intellect; as some fine ladies who would be shocked at the idea of a dram will not refuse a liqueur.

Charles Caleb Colton
With the offspring of genius, the law of parturition is reversed; the throes are in the conception, the pleasure in the birth.

Charles Caleb Colton
Sensibility would be a good portress if she had but one hand; with her right she opens the door to pleasure, but with her left to pain.

Charles Caleb Colton
A Christian builds his fortitude on a better foundation than stoicism; he is pleased with every thing that happens, because he knows it could not happen unless it first pleased God, and that which pleases Him must be best.

Charles Caleb Colton
Whenever we find ourselves more inclined to persecute than to persuade, we may then be certain that our zeal has more of pride in it than of charity.

Charles Caleb Colton
Genius in one grand particular is like life. We know nothing of either but by their effects.

Charles Caleb Colton
Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.

Charles Caleb Colton
The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men are.

Charles Caleb Colton
Cheerfulness ought to be the viaticum vitae of their life to the old; age without cheerfulness is a Lapland winter without a sun.

Charles Caleb Colton
So blinded are we by our passions, that we suffer more to be damned than to be saved.

Charles Caleb Colton
By paying our other debts, we are equal with all mankind; but in refusing to pay a debt of revenge, we are superior.

Charles Caleb Colton
He that aspires to be the head of a party will find it more difficult to please his friends than to perplex his foes. He must often act from false reasons which are weak, because he dares not avow the true reasons which are strong.

Charles Caleb Colton
Some persons will tell you, with an air of the miraculous, that they recovered although they were given over; whereas they might with more reason have said, they recovered because they were given over.

Charles Caleb Colton
Marriage is a feast where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner.

Charles Caleb Colton
Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.

Charles Caleb Colton