Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 16

• No propagation or multiplication is more rapid that that of evil, unless it be checked; no growth more certain.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Evil, Growth, Rapids

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• A leveller has long ago been set down as a ridiculous and chimerical being, who, if he could finish his work to-day, would have to begin it again tomorrow.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Equality, Long Ago, Ridiculous

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• If all seconds were as averse to duels as their principals, very little blood would be shed in that way.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Blood, Dueling, Would Be

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.44

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• Worldly wisdom dictates to her disciples the propriety of dressing somewhat beyond their means, but of living somewhat within them.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mean, Propriety, Disciple

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.112

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• The hand that unnerved Belshazzar derived its most horrifying influence from the want of a body, and death itself is not formidable in what we do know of it, but in what we do not.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Death, Hands, Body

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.169

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• Death is like thunder in two particulars; we are alarmed, at the sound of it; and it is formidable only from that which preceded it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Death, Two, Sound

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.371

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• No improvement that takes place in either sex can possibly be confined to itself. Each is a universal mirror to each, and the respective refinement of the one will always be in reciprocal proportion to the polish of the other.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Sex, Mirrors, Improvement

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• He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little further, and try to plant a virtue in its place; otherwise he will have his labor to renew. A strong soil that has produced weeds may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Weed, Strong, Roots

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• Courage is like the diamond,--very brilliant; not changed by fire, capable of high polish, but except for the purpose of cutting hard bodies useless.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Courage, Cutting, Fire

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.356

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• Too high an appreciation of our own talents is the chief cause why experience preaches to us all in vain.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Appreciation, Experience, Causes

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

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• Hannibal knew better how to conquer than how to profit by the conquest; and Napoleon was more skilful in taking positions than in maintaining them. As to reverses, no general cart presume to say that he may not be defeated; but he can, and ought to say, that he will not be surprised.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  May, Maintaining, Conquer

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• Fashion is the veriest goddess of semblance and of shade; to be happy is of far less consequence to her worshippers than to appear so; even pleasure itself they sacrifice to parade, and enjoyment to ostentation.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fashion, Sacrifice, Shade

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.255

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• Those who visit foreign nations, but who associate only with their own countrymen, change their climate, but not their customs 'caelum non animum mutant': they see new meridians, but the same men, and with heads as empty as their pockets.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Country, Travel, Home

  "Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think".

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• That extremes beget extremes is an apothegm built on the most profound observation of the human mind.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Profound, Mind, Observation

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.184

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• I question if Epicurus and Hume have done mankind a greater service by the looseness of their doctrines than by the purity of their lives. Of such men we may more justly exclaim, than of Caesar, "Confound their virtues, they've undone the world!

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Example, Doctrine

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• The road to glory would cease to be arduous if it were trite and trodden; and great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities but to make them.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Opportunity, Mind, Glory

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.46

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• The blindness of bigotry, the madness of ambition, and the miscalculations of diplomacy seek their victims principally amongst the innocent and the unoffending. The cottage is sure to suffer for every error of the court, the cabinet, or the camp. When error sits in the seat of power and of authority, and is generated in high places, it may be compared to that torrent which originates indeed in the mountain, but commits its devastation in the vale.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Ambition, Errors, Suffering

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.19

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• We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves. When we see the martyr to virtue, subject as he is to the infirmities of a man, yet suffering the tortures of a demon, and bearing them with the magnanimity of a God, do we not behold a heroism that angels may indeed surpass, but which they cannot imitate, and must admire.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Humility, Angel, Men

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.212

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• The excess of our youth are checks written against our age and they are payable with interest thirty years later.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Cute, Time, Years

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• There are some who affect a want of affectation, and flatter themselves that they are above flattery; they are proud of being thought extremely humble, and would go round the world to punish those who thought them capable of revenge; they are so satisfied of the suavity of their own temper that they would quarrel with their dearest benefactor only for doubting it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Revenge, Humble, Doubt

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.42

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• As the grand discordant harmony of the celestial bodies may be explained by the simple principles of gravity and impulse, so also in that more wonderful and complicated microcosm, the heart of man, all the phenomena of morals are perhaps resolvable into one single principle, the pursuit of apparent good; for although customs universally vary, yet man in all climates and countries is essentially the same.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Country, Heart, Simple

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.102

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• We injure mysteries, which are matters of faith, by any attempt at explanation in order to make them matters of reason. Could they be explained, they would cease to be mysteries; and it has been well said that a thing is not necessarily against reason because it happens to be above it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Order, Matter, Mystery

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

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• It is almost as difficult to make a man unlearn his errors as his knowledge.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Errors, Habit

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.13

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• Speaking generally, no man appears great to his contemporaries, for the same reason that no man is great to his servants--both know too much of him.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Greatness, Men, Too Much

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.373

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• Shining outward qualities, although they may excite first-rate expectations, are not unusually found to be the companions of second-rate abilities.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Expectations, Shining, Quality

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.135

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