Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 21

• The acquirements of science may be termed the armour of the mind; but that armour would be worse than useless, that cost us all we had, and left us nothing to defend.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Science, Mind, Would Be

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.123

  4 Copy quote

• It is not so difficult a task as to plant new truths, as to root out old errors

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Truth, Science, Errors

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.69

  4 Copy quote

• If rich, it is easy enough to conceal our wealth; but, if poor, it is not quite so easy to conceal our poverty. We shall find that it is less difficult to hide a thousand guineas, than one hole in our coat.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Coats, Poverty, Wealth

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.134

  6 Copy quote

• Let those who would affect singularity with success first determine to be very virtuous, and they will be sure to be very singular.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Loneliness, Solitude, Firsts

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.211

  54 Copy quote

• The science of mathematics performs more than it promises, but the science of metaphysics promises more than it performs.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Promise, Mathematics, Metaphysics

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

  7 Copy quote

• Reply to wit with gravity, and to gravity with wit.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Gravity, Wit

  4 Copy quote

• Pain may be said to follow pleasure as its shadow.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Pain, Shadow, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.83

  7 Copy quote

• The three great apostles of practical atheism, that make converts without persecuting, and retain them without preaching, are wealth, health and power.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Atheism, Three, Wealth

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

  6 Copy quote

• Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  May, Improvement, Invention

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.14

  4 Copy quote

• Mystery magnifies danger, as a fog the sun, the hand that warned Belshazzar derived its horrifying effect from the want of a body.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  War, Fog, Hands

  8 Copy quote

• Philosophy is a bully that talks loud when the danger is at a distant; but, the moment she is pressed hard by an enemy, she is nowhere to be found and leaves the brunt of the battle to be fought by her steady, humble comrade, religion.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Philosophy, Humble, Bully

  7 Copy quote

• The sun should not set upon our anger, neither should he rise upon our confidence. We should forgive freely, but forget rarely. I will not be revenged, and this I owe to my enemy; but I will remember, and this I owe to myself.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Forgiveness, Forgiving, Enemy

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.31

  5 Copy quote

• Alas! What is man? Whether he be deprived of that light which is from on high, of whether he discard it, a frail and trembling creature; standing on time, that bleak and narrow isthmus between two eternities, he sees nothing but impenetrable darkness on the one hand, and doubt, distrust, and conjecture, still more perplexing, on the other. Most gladly would he take an observation, as to whence he has come, or whither he is going; alas, he has not the means: his telescope is too dim, his compass too wavering, his plummet too short.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mean, Men, Light

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.480

  4 Copy quote

• From its very inaction, idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil; as a palsy is more to be dreaded than a fever. The Turks have a proverb which says that the devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Evil, Temptation

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.47

  7 Copy quote

• Memory is the friend of wit, but the treacherous ally of invention; there are many books that owe their success to two things; good memory of those who write them, and the bad memory of those who read them

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Memories, Book, Writing

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.160

  5 Copy quote

• Fame is an undertaker that pays but little attention to the living, but bedizens the dead, furnishes out their funerals, and follows them to the grave

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Funeral, Attention, Littles

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.219

  7 Copy quote

• It is doubtful whether mankind are most indebted to those who like Bacon and Butler dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to those who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and give it currency and utility

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Real, Giving, Gold

  7 Copy quote

• The whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Ignorance, Pride, Whole Family

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.190

  7 Copy quote

• The greatest genius is never so great as when it is chastised and subdued by the highest reason.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Genius, Reason, Highest

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.24

  7 Copy quote

• Genius, in one respect, is like gold; numbers of persons are constantly writing about both, who have neither.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Writing, Numbers, Gold

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.395

  7 Copy quote

• It is not until we have passed through the furnace that we are made to know how much dross there is in our composition.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Gratitude, Made, Dross

  4 Copy quote

• Envy, if surrounded on all sides by the brightness of another's prosperity, like the scorpion confined within a circle of fire, will sting itself to death.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Gratitude, Fire, Circles

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.151

  10 Copy quote

• Mathematicians have sought knowledge in figures, Philosophers in systems, Logicians in subtleties, and Metaphysicians in sounds. It is not in any nor in all of these. He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul, and he that studies only books, the soul without the body.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Book, Knowledge, Men

  Charles Caleb Colton (1828). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words Addressed to Those who Think”, p.149

  9 Copy quote

• Men are more readily contented with no intellectual light than with a little; and wherever they have been taught to acquire some knowledge in order to please others, they have most generally gone on to acquire more, to please themselves.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Knowledge, Men, Light

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.247

  7 Copy quote

• Success seems to be that which forms the distinction between confidence and conceit.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Success, Achievement, Form

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.51

  6 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

John Churton Collins

George William Curtis

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Sun Tzu

O. Henry

Clarence Budington Kelland

James Ramsey Ullman

Soren Kierkegaard