Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 15

• Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wisdom, Believe, Errors

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.112

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• Men of strong minds and who think for themselves, should not be discouraged on finding occasionally that some of their best ideas have been anticipated by former writers; they will neither anathematize others nor despair themselves. They will rather go on discovering things before discovered, until they are rewarded with a land hitherto unknown, an empire indisputably their own, both right of conquest and of discovery.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Strong, Men, Thinking

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• Evils in the journey of life are like the hills which alarm travelers upon their road; they both appear great at a distance, but when we approach them we find that they are far less insurmountable than we had conceived.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Life, Distance, Journey

  Charles Caleb Colton (1849). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Address--to Those who Think”, p.460

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• Words are in this respect like water, that they often take their taste, flavour, and character, from the mouth out of which they proceed, as the water from the channel through which it flows.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Character, Water, Mouths

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.464

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• Power. like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation. To acquire it, appears not more difficult than to be dispossessed of it when acquired, since it enables the holder to shift his own errors on dependents, and to take their merits to himself. But the miracle of losing it vanishes, when we reflect that we are as liable to fall as to rise, by the treachery of others; and that to say "I am" is language that has been appropriated exclusively to God!

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fall, Errors, Giving

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.23

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• An honest man will continue to be so though surrounded on all sides by rogues.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Rogues, Sides

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.30

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• Oppression cannot prosper where none will submit to be enslaved.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Oppression, Submit

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.67

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• A society composed of none but the wicked could not exist; it contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction, and without a flood, would be swept away from the earth by the deluge of its own iniquity.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wicked, Would Be, Earth

  Charles Caleb COLTON (1849). “L.P.”, p.116

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• The temple of truth is built indeed of stones of crystal, but, inasmuch as men have been concerned in rearing it, it has been consolidated by a cement composed of baser materials.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Stones, Crystals

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

  4 Copy quote

• We often regret we did not do otherwise, when that very otherwise would, in all probability, have done for us.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Regret, Done, Probability

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.362

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• Pleasure is to a woman what the sun is to the flower: if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates, and destroys. But the duties of domestic life, exercised as they must be in retirement, and calling forth all the sensibilities of the female, are perhaps as necessary to the full development of her charms, as the shade and the shower are to the rose, confirming its beauty, and increasing its fragrance.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Retirement, Women, Flower

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.81

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• The next thing to having wisdom ourselves, is to profit by that of others.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wisdom, Next, Profit

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• Make the most of the day, by determining to spend it on two sorts of acquaintances only--those by whom something may be got, and those from whom something may be learned.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Two, May, Acquaintance

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• Early rising not only gives us more life in the same number of years, but adds, likewise, to their number; and not only enables us to enjoy more of existence in the same time, but increases also the measure.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Morning, Years, Rising Up

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”

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• There is no quality of the mind, or of the body, that so instantaneously and irresistibly captivates, as wit. An elegant writer has observed that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. He that deserts the latter, and gives himself up entirely to the guidance of the former, will certainly fall into many pitfalls and quagmires, like him who walks by flashes of lightning, rather than the steady beams of the sun.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fall, Giving, Wife

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.49

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• Subtract from the great man all that he owes to opportunity, all that he owes to chance, and all that he gained by the wisdom of his friends and the folly of his enemies, and the giant will often be seen to be a pygmy.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Opportunity, Men, Often Is

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• There is this of good in real evils; they deliver us, while they last, from the petty despotism of all that were imaginary.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Real, Evil, Wickedness

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.455

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• Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Maturity, Roots, Style

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.164

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• The plainest man who pays attention to women, will sometimes succeed as well as the handsomest man who does not.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Women, Doe, Attention

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.137

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• To despise our own species is the price we must often pay for knowledge of it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Knowledge, Pay, Despise

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• Miss Edgeworth and Mme. de Stael have proved that there is no sex in style; and Mme. la Roche Jacqueline, and the Duchesse d'Angouleme have proved that there is no sex in courage.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Sex, Missing, Style

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• The greatest miracle that the Almighty could perform would be to make a bad man happy, even in heaven; he must unparadise that blessed place to accomplish it. In its primary signification, all vice--that is, all excess--brings its own punishment even here.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Blessed, Men, Miracle

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.163

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• Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Death, Medicine, Physicians

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• Posthumous fame is a plant of tardy growth, for our body must be the seed of it; or we may liken it to a torch, which nothing but the last spark of life can light up; or we may compare it to the trumpet of the archangel, for it is blown over the dead; but unlike that awful blast, it is of earth, not of heaven, and can neither rouse nor raise us.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Light, Heaven, Growth

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.365

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• It is more easy to forgive the weak who have injured us than the powerful whom we have injured.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Powerful, Forgiving, Easy

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.34

  7 Copy quote

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