Charles Caleb Colton Quotes & Sayings

That an author's work is the mirror of his mind is a position that has led to very false conclusions. If Satan himself were to write a book it would be in praise of virtue, because the good would purchase it for use, and the bad for ostentation. — Charles Caleb Colton

The reason why great men meet with so little pity or attachment in adversity, would seem to be this: the friends of a great man were made by his fortune, his enemies by himself, and revenge is a much more punctual paymaster than gratitude. — Charles Caleb Colton

We strive as hard to hide our hearts from ourselves as from others, and always with more success; for in deciding upon our own case we are both judge, jury, and executioner, and where sophistry cannot overcome the first, or flattery the second, self-love is always ready to defeat the sentence by bribing the third. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

He that has never known adversity is but half acquainted with others, or with himself. — 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

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

I have somewhere seen it observed that we should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower: she steals sweets from it, but does not injure it. — Charles Caleb Colton

If merited, no courage can stand against its just indignation. — Charles Caleb Colton

Put on the livery of the best master only to serve the worst. — Charles Caleb Colton

Of two evils, it is perhaps less injurious to society, that good doctrine should be accompanied by a bad life, than that a good life should lend its support to a bad doctrine. — Charles Caleb Colton

Bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret. — Charles Caleb Colton

Anguish of mind has driven thousands to suicide; anguish of body, none. This proves that the health of the mind is of far more consequence to our happiness than the health of the body, although both are deserving of much more attention than either of them receive. — Charles Caleb Colton

Love is a volcano, the crater of which no wise man will approach too nearly, lest ... he should be swallowed up. — Charles Caleb Colton

In cases of doubtful morality, it is usual to say is there any harm in doing this? This question may sometimes be best answered by asking ourselves another; is there any harm in letting it alone? — Charles Caleb Colton

Butler compared the tongues of these eternal talkers to race-horses, which go the faster the less weight they carry. — Charles Caleb Colton

The further we advance in knowledge, the more simplicity shall we discover in those primary rules that regulate all the apparently endless, complicated, and multiform operations of the Godhead. — Charles Caleb Colton

The most consistent men are not more unlike to others, than they are at times to themselves. — Charles Caleb Colton

Observation made in the cloister or in the desert will generally be as obscure as the one and as barren as the other; but he that would paint with his pencil must study originals, and not be over-fearful of a little dust. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

Secrecy is the soul of all great designs. — Charles Caleb Colton

Some frauds succeed from the apparent candor, the open confidence, and the full blaze of ingenuousness that is thrown around them. The slightest mystery would excite suspicion and ruin all. Such stratagems may be compared to the stars; they are discoverable by darkness and hidden only by light. — Charles Caleb Colton

We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is civil war. — Charles Caleb Colton

To be satisfied with the acquittal of the world, though accompanied with the secret condemnation of conscience, this is the mark of a little mind; but it requires a soul of no common stamp to be satisfied with its own acquittal, and to despise the condemnation of the world. — Charles Caleb Colton

Shrewd and crafty politicians, when they wish to bring about an unpopular measure, must not go straight forward to work, if they do they will certainly fail; and failures to men in power, are like defeats to a general, they shake their popularity. Therefore, since they cannot sail in the teeth of the wind, they must tack, and ultimately gain their object, by appearing at times to be departing from it. — Charles Caleb Colton

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. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

This world cannot explain its own difficulties without the assistance of another. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

The sceptic, when he plunges into the depths of infidelity, like the miser who leaps from the shipwreck, will find that the treasures which he bears about him will only sink him deeper in the abyss. — Charles Caleb Colton

When we live habitually with the wicked, we become necessarily either their victim or their disciple; when we associate, on the contrary, with virtuous men, we form ourselves in imitation of their virtues, or, at least, lose every day something of our faults. — Charles Caleb Colton

He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are. — Charles Caleb Colton

Subtract from many modern poets all that may be found in Shakespeare, and trash will remain. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

The policy that can strike only while the iron is hot will be overcome by that perseverance, which ... can make that iron hot by striking and he that can only rule the storm must yield to him who can both raise and rule it. — Charles Caleb Colton

Idleness is the grand Pacific Ocean of life, and in that stagnant abyss the most salutary things produce no good, the most noxious no evil. Vice, indeed, abstractedly considered, may be, and often is engendered in idleness; but the moment it becomes efficiently vice, it must quit its cradle and cease to be idle. — Charles Caleb Colton

Ladies of Fashion starve their happiness to feed their vanity, and their love to feed their pride. — Charles Caleb Colton

Jealousy is sustained as often by pride as by affection. — Charles Caleb Colton

The victims of ennui paralyze all the grosser feelings by excess, and torpify all the finer by disuse and inactivity. Disgusted with this world, and indifferent about another, they at last lay violent hands upon themselves, and assume no small credit for the sang froid with which they meet death. But, alas! such beings can scarcely be said to die, for they have never truly lived. — Charles Caleb Colton

Custom looks to things that are past, and fashion to things that are present, but both of them are somewhat purblind as to things that are to come. — Charles Caleb Colton

Some well-meaning Christians tremble for their salvation, because they have never gone through that valley of tears and of sorrow, which they have been taught to consider as an ordeal that must be passed through before they can arrive at regeneration. To satisfy such minds, it may be observed, that the slightest sorrow for sin is sufficient, if it produce amendment, and that the greatest is insufficient, if it do not. — Charles Caleb Colton

Wealth is a relative thing since those who have little and want less are richer than those who have much but want more. — Charles Caleb Colton

Avarice begets more vices than Priam did children and like Priam survives them all. It starves its keeper to surfeit those who wish him dead, and makes him submit to more mortifications to lose heaven than the martyr undergoes to gain it. — Charles Caleb Colton

Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable. — Charles Caleb Colton

There are male as well as female gossips. — Charles Caleb Colton

Kings and their subjects, masters and slaves, find a common level in two places - at the foot of the cross, and in the grave. — Charles Caleb Colton

There are some men who are fortune's favorites, and who, like cats, light forever on their legs. — Charles Caleb Colton

It is sufficiently humiliating to our nature to reflect that our knowledge is but as she rivulet, our ignorance as the sea. On points of the highest interest, the moment we quit the light of revelation we shall find that Platonism itself is intimately connected with Pyrrhonism, and the deepest inquiry with the darkest doubt. — Charles Caleb Colton

Like the rainbow, peace rests upon the earth, but its arch is lost in heaven. Heaven bathes it in hues of light
it springs up amid tears and clouds
it is a reflection of the eternal sun
it is an assurance of calm
it is the sign of a great covenant between God and man
it is an emanation from the distant orb of immortal light. — Charles Caleb Colton

Doubt is the vestibule which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom; therefore, when we are in doubt and puzzle out the truth by our own exertions, we have gained a something that will stay by us, and which will serve us again. But, if to avoid the trouble of the search we avail ourselves of the superior information of a friend, such knowledge will not remain with us; we have not bought but borrowed it. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

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

Theories are private property, but truth is common stock. — Charles Caleb Colton

Custom is the law of one description of fools, and fashion of another; but the two parties often clash
for precedent is the legislator of the first, and novelty of the last. Custom, therefore, looks to things that are past, and fashion to things that are present. — Charles Caleb Colton

Man is an embodied paradox, a bundle of contradictions. — Charles Caleb Colton

With respect to the authority of great names, it should be remembered that he alone deserves to have any weight and influence with posterity, who has shown himself superior to the particular and predominant error of his own times; who, like the peak of Teneriffe, has hailed the intellectual sun before its beams have reached the horizon of common minds. — Charles Caleb Colton

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away. — Charles Caleb Colton

False reasoners are often best confuted by giving them the full swing of their own absurdities. — Charles Caleb Colton

In death itself there can be nothing terrible, for the act of death annihilates sensation; but there are many roads to death, and some of them justly formidable, even to the bravest. — Charles Caleb Colton

The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world. — Charles Caleb Colton

Accustom yourself to submit on all and every occasion, and on the most minute, no less than on the most important circumstances of life, to a small present evil, to obtain a greater distant good. This will give decision, tone, and energy to the mind, which, thus disciplined, will often reap victory from defeat and honor from repulse. — Charles Caleb Colton

When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good. — Charles Caleb Colton

Happiness is that single and glorious thing which is the very light and sun of the whole animated universe; and where she is not it were better that nothing should be. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

Religion, like its votaries, while it exists on earth, must have a body as well as a soul. A religion purely spiritual might suit a being as pure, but men are compound animals; and the body too often lords it over the mind. — Charles Caleb Colton

There are prating coxcombs in the world who would rather talk than listen, although Shakespeare himself were the orator, and human nature the theme! — Charles Caleb Colton

The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue. — Charles Caleb Colton

Nothing is more durable than the dynasty of Doubt; for he reigns in the hearts of all his people, but gives satisfaction to none of them, and yet he is the only despot who can never die, while any of his subjects live. — Charles Caleb Colton

When young, we trust ourselves too much, and we trust others too little when old. Rashness is the error of youth, timid caution of age. Manhood is the isthmus between the two extremes; the ripe and fertile season of action, when alone we can hope to find the head to contrive, united with the hand to execute. — Charles Caleb Colton

Emulation looks out for merits, that she may exalt herself by a victory; envy spies out blemishes that she may lower another by defeat. — Charles Caleb Colton

Fortune has been considered the guardian divinity of fools; and, on this score, she has been accused of blindness; but it should rather be adduced as a proof of her sagacity, when she helps those who cannot help themselves. — Charles Caleb Colton

Perhaps that is nearly the perfection of good writing which is original, but whose truth alone prevents the reader from suspecting that it is so; and which effects that for knowledge which the lens effects for the sunbeam, when it condenses its brightness in order to increase its force. — Charles Caleb Colton

If that marvellous microcosm, man, with all the costly cargo of his faculties and powers, were indeed a rich argosy, fitted out and freighted only for shipwreck and destruction, who amongst us that tolerate the present only from the hope of the future, who that have any aspirings of a high and intellectual nature about them, could be brought to submit to the disgusting mortifications of the voyage? — Charles Caleb Colton

Time, the cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition, is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counselor of the wise, bringing all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the other. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

Wit in women is a jewel, which, unlike all others, borrows lustre from its setting, rather than bestows it; since nothing is so easy as to fancy a very beautiful woman extremely witty. — Charles Caleb Colton

If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition. — Charles Caleb Colton

If it be true that men of strong imaginations are usually dogmatists
and I am inclined to think it is so
it ought to follow that men of weak imaginations are the reverse; in which case we should have some compensation for stupidity. But it unfortunately happens that no dogmatist is more obstinate or less open to conviction than a fool. — Charles Caleb Colton

The greatest and most amiable privilege which the rich enjoy over the poor is that which they exercise the least
the privilege of making others happy. — Charles Caleb Colton

Those that will not permit their wealth to do any good for others ... cut themselves off from the truest pleasure here and the highest happiness later. — Charles Caleb Colton

If a horse has four legs, and I'm riding it, I think I can win. — Charles Caleb Colton

It is more easy to forgive the weak who have injured us than the powerful whom we have injured. — Charles Caleb Colton

The hate which we all bear with the most Christian patience is the hate of those who envy us. — Charles Caleb Colton

A beautiful woman, if poor, should use double circumspection; for her beauty will tempt others, her poverty herself. — Charles Caleb Colton

Women who are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest; and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity of principle from that freedom of demeanor which often arises from a total ignorance of vice. — Charles Caleb Colton

There is more jealousy between rival wits than rival beauties, for vanity has no sex. But in both cases there must be pretensions, or there will be no jealousy. — 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

True goodness is not without that germ of greatness that can bear with patience the mistakes of the ignorant. — Charles Caleb Colton

To judge by the event is an error all commit: for in every instance courage, if crowned with success, is heroism; if clouded by defeat, temerity. When Nelson fought his battle in the Sound, it was the result alone that decided whether he was to kiss a hand at court or a rod at a court-martial. — Charles Caleb Colton

Unity of opinion is indeed a glorious and desirable thing, and its circle cannot be too strong and extended, if the centre be truth; but if the centre be error, the greater the circumference, the greater the evil. — Charles Caleb Colton

There is this paradox in fear: he is most likely to inspire it in others who has none himself! — Charles Caleb Colton

Some indeed there are who profess to despise all flattery, but even these are nevertheless to be flattered, by being told that they do despise it. — Charles Caleb Colton

Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false. — Charles Caleb Colton

Pride requires very costly food-its keeper's happiness. — Charles Caleb Colton

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

There are some who write, talk, and think, so much about vice and virtue, that they have no time to practice either the one or the other. — Charles Caleb Colton

In all places, and in all times, those religionists who have believed too much have been more inclined to violence and persecution than those who have believed too little. — Charles Caleb Colton

Pleasure is to women what the sun is to the flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates and destroys. — Charles Caleb Colton

Deformity of the heart I call
The worst deformity of all;
For what is form, or what is face,
But the soul's index, or its case? — Charles Caleb Colton

Revenge is a debt, in the paying of which the greatest knave is honest and sincere, and, so far as he is able, punctual. — Charles Caleb Colton