Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 26

• If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Cities, Would Be, Literature

  'Lacon' (1820) vol. 1, no. 334

  24 Copy quote

• 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

  12 Copy quote

• Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Death, Medicine, Physicians

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

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  8 Copy quote

• The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Writing, Faces, Privacy

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.158

  7 Copy quote

• To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Time, Past, Looks

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

  4 Copy quote

• In science, reason is the guide; in poetry, taste. The object of the one is truth, which is uniform and indivisible; the object of the other is beauty, which is multiform and varied.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Science, Uniforms, Taste

  4 Copy quote

• It is far better to borrow experience than to buy it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Experience

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.30

  5 Copy quote

• Flattery is often a traffic of mutual meanness, where although both parties intend deception, neither are deceived.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Party, Deception, Flattery

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.439

  8 Copy quote

• Wars of opinion, as they have been the most destructive, are also the most disgraceful of conflicts.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  War, Opinion, Conflict

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.226

  4 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

• "Lawyers Are": The only civil delinquents whose judges must of necessity be chosen from (amongst) themselves.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Judging, Lawyer, Chosen

  4 Copy quote

• The science of legislation is like that of medicine in one respect: that it is far more easy to point out what will do harm than what will do good.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Medicine, Easy, Legislation

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.219

  4 Copy quote

• There are two modes of establishing our reputation; to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Two, Rogues

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.115

  7 Copy quote

• None of us are so much praised or censured as we think.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Thinking, Vanity

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.216

  4 Copy quote

• When all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Running, Vices, Common

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.319

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Ocean, Often Is, Evil

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.312

  9 Copy quote

• He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool; since the most absurd doctrines are not without such evidence as martyrdom can produce. A martyr, therefore, by the mere act of suffering, can prove nothing but his own faith.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mean, Suffering, Doctrine

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.199

  8 Copy quote

• The martyrs to vice far exceed the martyrs to virtue, both in endurance and in number.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Numbers, Endurance, Vices

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.174

  8 Copy quote

• Neutrality is no favorite with Providence, for we are so formed that it is scarcely possible for us to stand neuter in our hearts, although we may deem it prudent to appear so in our actions

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Heart, Neutrality, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.170

  8 Copy quote

• He that aspires to be the head of a party will find it more difficult to please his friends than to perplex his foes. He must often act from false reasons which are weak, because he dares not avow the true reasons which are strong.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Strong, Party, Reason

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.27

  4 Copy quote

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

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Beautiful, Temptation, Use

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.26

  7 Copy quote

• Villainy that is vigilant will be an overmatch for virtue, if she slumber at her post.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Slumber, Virtue, Posts

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.226

  19 Copy quote

• 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

  Names, Errors, Mind

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.15

  7 Copy quote

• He that gives a portion of his time and talent to the investigation of mathematical truth, will come to all other questions with a decided advantage over his opponents.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Giving, Opponents, Talent

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.159

  8 Copy quote

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