Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 17

• Natural good is' so intimately connected with moral good, and natural evil with moral evil, that I am as certain as if I heard a voice from heaven proclaim it, that God is on the side of virtue. He has learnt much, and has not lived in vain, who has practically discovered that most strict and necessary connection, that does and will ever exist between vice and misery, and virtue and happiness.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Voice, Evil, Heaven

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.145

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• There are some men who are fortune's favorites, and who, like cats, light forever on their legs.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Cat, Men, Light

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• Reform is a good replete with paradox; it is a cathartic which our political quacks, like our medical, recommend to others, but will not take themselves; it is admired by all who cannot effect it, and abused by all who can; it is thought pregnant with danger, for all time that is present, but would have been extremely profitable for that which is past, and will be highly salutary for that which is to come.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Past, Political, Reform

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.76

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• Duke Chartres used to boast that no man could have less real value for character than himself, yet he would gladly give twenty thousand pounds for a good one, because he could immediately make double that sum by means of it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Real, Character, Mean

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.377

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• To be a mere verbal critic is what no man of genius would be if he could; but to be a critic of true taste and feeling is what no man without genius could be if he would.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Feelings, Would Be

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.386

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• He who knows himself knows others.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Knows, Self-examination

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• It is a curious paradox that precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity, to those mysterious powers assumed by others; and in those regions of darkness and ignorance where man cannot effect even those things that are within the power of man, there we shall ever find that a blind belief in feats that are far beyond those powers has taken the deepest root in the minds of the deceived, and produced the richest harvest to the knavery of the deceiver.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Taken, Ignorance, Men

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

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• The most notorious swindler has not assumed so many names as self-love, nor is so much ashamed of his own. She calls herself patriotism, when at the same time she is rejoicing at just as much calamity to her native country as will introduce herself into power, and expel her rivals.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Country, Self, Names

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.76

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• There are too many who reverse both the principles and the practice of the Apostles; they become all things to all men, not to serve others, but themselves; and they try all things only to hold fast that which is bad.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Practice, Trying

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.106

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• The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Genius, Literature, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1866). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.123

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• If sensuality be our only happiness we ought to envy the brutes, for instinct is a surer, shorter, safer guide to such happiness than reason.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Envy, Reason, Instinct

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.428

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• Alas! how has the social spirit of Christianity been perverted by fools at one time, and by knaves and bigots at another; by the self-tormentors of the cell, and the all-tormentors of the conclave!

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Self, Cells, Knaves

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• We submit to the society of those that can inform us, but we seek the society of those whom we can inform. And men of genius ought not to be chagrined if they see themselves neglected. For when we communicate knowledge, we are raised in our own estimation; but when we receive it, we are lowered.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Society, Genius

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.156

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• Men spend their lives in anticipations,—in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other—it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Inspirational, Happiness, Happy

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• He that abuses his own profession will not patiently bear with any one else who does so. And this is one of our most subtle operations of self-love. For when we abuse our own profession, we tacitly except ourselves; but when another abuses it, we are far from being certain that this is the case.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Self, Abuse, Doe

  Charles Caleb Colton (1821). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.39

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• Philosophers have widely differed as to the seat of the soul, and St. Paul has told us that out of the heart proceed murmurings; but there can be no doubt that the seat of perfect contentment is in the head, for every individual is thoroughly satisfied with his own proportion of brains.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Heart, Perfect, Soul

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.91

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• It is curious that we pay statesmen for what they say, not for what they do; and judge of them from what they do, not from what they say. Hence they have one code of maxims for profession and another for practice, and make up their consciences as the Neapolitans do their beds, with one set of furniture for show and another for use.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Practice, Judging, Bed

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

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• The firmest of friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Friendship, Adversity, Flames

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.183

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• If a horse has four legs, and I'm riding it, I think I can win.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Horse, Winning, Thinking

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• Some are cursed with the fullness of satiety; and how can they bear the ills of life when its very pleasures fatigue them?

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Bears, Pleasure, Fullness

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• Many books owe their success to the good memories of their authors and the bad memories of their readers.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Memories, Book, Reader

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• It is always easy to shut a book, but not quite so easy to get rid of a lettered coxcomb.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Book, Easy, Easy To Get

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.161

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• If a book really wants the patronage of a great name, it is a bad book; and if it be a good book, it wants it not.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Book, Names, Want

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.5

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• Of present fame think little, and of future less; the praises that we receive after we are buried, like the flowers that are strewed over our grave, may be gratifying to the living, but they are nothing to the dead.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Flower, Thinking, May

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• Some men who know that they are great are so very haughty withal and insufferable that their acquaintance discover their greatness only by the tax of humility which they are obliged to pay as the price of their friendship.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Humility, Greatness, Men

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.50

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