Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 20

• It is astonishing how much more anxious people are to lengthen life than to improve it; and as misers often lose large sums of money in attempting to make more, so do hypochondriacs squander large sums of time in search of nostrums by which they vainly hope they may get more time to squander.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  People, May, Medical

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

  9 Copy quote

• Envy ought to have no place allowed it in the hearts of people; for the goods of this present world are so vile and low that they are beneath it; and those of the future world are so vast and exalted that they are above it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Heart, People, Envy

  6 Copy quote

• They that are loudest in their threats are the weakest in the execution of them. It is probable that he who is killed by lightning hears no noise; but the thunder-clap which follows, and which most alarms the ignorant, is the surest proof of their safety.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Safety, Ignorant, Execution

  7 Copy quote

• If we look backwards to antiquity it should be as those that are winning a race.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Winning, Race, Looks

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

  4 Copy quote

• When we are in the company of sensible men, we ought to be doubly cautious of talking too much, lest we lose two good things, their good opinion and our own improvement; for what we have to say we know, but what they have to say we know not.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Two, Talking

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

  8 Copy quote

• How strange it is that we of the present day are constantly praising that past age which our fathers abused, and as constantly abusing that present age, which our children will praise.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Children, Father, Past

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

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Flattery, Despise, Nevertheless

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.206

  7 Copy quote

• Fashions smile has given wit to dullness and grace to deformity, and has brought everything into vogue, by turns, but virtue.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fashion, Grace, Virtue

  4 Copy quote

• All poets pretend to write for immortality, but the whole tribe have no objection to present pay and present praise.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Writing, Pay, Tribes

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.25

  4 Copy quote

• In order to try whether a vessel be leaky, we first prove it with water before we trust it with wine.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wine, Order, Water

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.39

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Want, Littles, Wealth

  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

  7 Copy quote

• Death is the only sovereign whom no partiality can warp, and no price corrupt.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Death, Sovereign, Warp

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.429

  21 Copy quote

• There are two things that bestow consequence; great possession, or great debts.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Two, Debt, Possession

  Charles Caleb COLTON (1849). “L.P.”, p.103

  7 Copy quote

• As in the game of billiards, the balls are constantly producing effects from mere chance, which the most skillful player could neither execute nor foresee, but which, when they do happen, serve mainly to teach him how much he has still to learn; so it is in the most profound and complicated game of politics and diplomacy. In both cases, we can only regulate our play by what we have seen, rather than by what we have hoped; and by what we have experienced, rather than by what we have expected.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Player, Games, Profound

  Lacon: or many things in afew words (p. 345)

  25 Copy quote

• 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

  Good Life, Two, Evil

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.130

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Doubt, Information, Temples

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.144

  10 Copy quote

• Envy is the coward side of Hate, And all her ways are bleak and desolate.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hate, Envy, Coward

  14 Copy quote

• Fashion ... has brought every thing into vogue, by turns.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fashion, Vogue, Turns

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.233

  4 Copy quote

• Adroit observers will find that some who affect to dislike flattery, may yet be flattered indirectly, by a well seasoned abuse and ridicule of their rivals.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Abuse, Rivals, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.53

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Divinity, Fool, Helping

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.52

  4 Copy quote

• If kings would only determine not to extend their dominions until they had filled them with happiness, they would find the smallest territories too large, but the longest life too short for the full accomplishment of so grand and so noble an ambition.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Happiness, Kings, Ambition

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.111

  4 Copy quote

• Much too oft we make life gloomy-- When happy we might be, If we gathered more of sunshine, And not dark shadows see.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Life, Happiness, Dark

  4 Copy quote

• Hope is a prodigal young heir, and Experience is his banker; but his drafts are seldom honoured, since there is often a heavy balance against him, because he draws largely on a small capital, is not yet in possession, and if he were, would die.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hope, Balance, Heirs

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.72

  4 Copy quote

• Hypocrites act by virtue.... They frame many counterfeits of her, with which they make an ostentatious parade, in all public assemblies, and processions; but the original of what they counterfeit, and which may indeed be said to have fallen from heaven, they produce so seldom, that it is cankered by the rust of sloth, and useless from non-application.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hypocrite, Hypocrisy, Heaven

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.32

  7 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