Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 25

• 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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• Novels may teach us as wholesome a moral as the pulpit. There are "sermons in stones," in healthy books, and "good in everything.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Book, Healthy, May

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• If our eloquence be directed above the heads of our hearers, we shall do no execution. By pointing our arguments low, we stand a chance of hitting their hearts as well as their heads. In addressing angels, we could hardly raise our eloquence too high; but we must remember that men are not angels.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Heart, Angel, Men

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.147

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• Folly disgusts us less by her ignorance than pedantry by her learning.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Ignorance, Pedants, Disgusting

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.35

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• The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he is to-day. Total freedom from change would imply total freedom from error; but this is the prerogative of Omniscience alone.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Errors, Wisest Man

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.61

  4 Copy quote

• Purity lives and derives its life solely from the Spirit of God.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Spirit, Purity, Spirit Of God

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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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• It is more easy to forgive the weak who have injured us than the powerful whom we have injured.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Powerful, Forgiving, Easy

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.34

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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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• Charles Fox said that restorations were the most bloody of all revolutions; and he might have added that reformations are the best mode of preventing the necessity of either.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Restoration, Might, Revolution

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

  4 Copy quote

• 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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• 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

  4 Copy quote

• He who knows himself knows others.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Knows, Self-examination

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• Subtlety will sometimes give safety, no less than strength; and minuteness has sometimes escaped, where magnitude would have been crushed. The little animal that kills the boa is formidable chiefly from its insignificance, which is incompressible by the folds of its antagonist.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Animal, Safety, Giving

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

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• 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

  Success, Kissing, Errors

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.231

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• Gross and vulgar minds will always pay a higher respect to wealth than to talent; for wealth, although it be a far less efficient source of power than talent, happens to be far more intelligible.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mind, Pay, Talent

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.311

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• It has been well observed that the tongue discovers the state of the mind no less than that of the body; but in either case, before the philosopher or the physician can judge, the patient must open his mouth.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Talking, Judging, Mind

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.157

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• All preceptors should have that kind of genius described by Tacitus, "equal to their business, but not above it;" a patient industry, with competent erudition; a mind depending more on its correctness than its originality, and on its memory rather than on its invention.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Memories, Teaching, Should Have

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.161

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• Those who have finished by making all others think with them, have usually been those who began by daring to think with themselves.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Thinking, Daring, Finished

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.379

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• Time is the most subtle yet the most insatiable of depredators, and by appearing to take nothing is permitted to take all; nor can it be satisfied until it has stolen the world from us, and us from the world. It constantly flies, yet overcomes all things by flight; and although it is the present ally, it will be the future conqueror of death.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Time, Overcoming, Allies

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.265

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• 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

  Sex, Vanity, Rivals

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.110

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• Vanity finds in self-love so powerful an ally that it storms, as it were, by a coup de main,, the citadel of our heads, where, having blinded the two watchmen, it readily descends into the heart.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Powerful, Heart, Vanity

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.144

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• The inheritance of a distinguished and noble name is a proud inheritance to him who lives worthily of it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Names, Noble, Inheritance

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• There are many that despise half the world; but if there be any that despise the whole of it, it is because the other half despises them.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hate, Half, World

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

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• The wealth is ultimately just a relative thing. As a person with little money and little more needs to rich guys money but really wishes

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Guy, Wish, Needs

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