Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 5

• The family is the most basic unit of government. As the first community to which a person is attached and the first authority under which a person learns to live, the family establishes society's most basic values.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Family, Home, Government

  9 Copy quote

• It is easier to pretend to be what you are not than to hide what you really are; but he that can accomplish both has little to learn in hypocrisy.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Hypocrisy, Littles, Easier

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.150

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• 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

  Sweet, Flower, Book

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.232

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• Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us - never cease to instruct - never cloy.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Friends, True Friend, Book

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• A wise man may be duped as well as a fool; but the fool publishes the triumph of his deceiver; the wise man is silent, and denies that triumph to an enemy which he would hardly concede to a friend; a triumph that proclaims his own defeat.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wise, Men, Triumph

  "Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think".

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• The excesses of our youth are drafts upon our old age.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Age, Excess, Waste

  Charles Caleb Colton (1821). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.51

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• We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Fear, Despise

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.421

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• Atheism is a system which can communicate neither warmth nor illumination, except from those fagots which your mistaken zeal has lighted up for its destruction.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Illumination, Atheism, Fagots

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.42

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• Temperate men drink the most, because they drink the longest.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Drink

  Charles Caleb COLTON (1849). “L.P.”, p.182

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• Is there anything more tedious than the often repeated tales of the old and forgetful?

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Tales, Forgetful, Tedious

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• There is this difference between the two temporal blessings - health and money; money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed; health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied; and this superiority of the latter is still more obvious when we reflec.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Blessing, Two, Differences

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.133

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• To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Sad, Broken Heart, Lonely

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.211

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• Unlike the sun, intellectual luminaries shine brightest after they set.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Shining, Intellectual, Sun

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• Strong as our passions are, they may be starved into submission, and conquered without being killed.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Strong, Passion, May

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.178

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• Most plagiarists, like the drone, have neither taste to select, industry to acquire, nor skill to improve, but impudently pilfer the honey ready prepared, from the hive.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Skills, Drones, Honey

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.232

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• The victim to too severe a law is considered as a martyr rather than a criminal.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Law, Justice, Criminals

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.403

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• He that places himself neither higher nor lower than he ought to do exercises the truest humility.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Humility, Exercise, Higher

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.235

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• All the poets are indebted more or less to those who have gone before them; even Homer's originality has been questioned, and Virgil owes almost as much to Theocritus, in his Pastorals, as to Homer, in his Heroics; and if our own countryman, Milton, has soared above both Homer and Virgil, it is because he has stolen some feathers from their wings.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wings, Gone, Originality

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• Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Honor, Fickle, Opinion

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• Man is an embodied paradox, a bundle of contradictions.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Humanity, Paradox

  'Lacon' (1820) vol. 1, no. 408

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• If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill her above the brim with love of herself; all that runs over will be yours.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Love, Running, Self Esteem

  Charles Caleb Colton (1828). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words Addressed to Those who Think”, p.80

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• Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Love, Happiness, Dream

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

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• There are many who say more than the truth on some occasions, and balance the account with their consciences by saying less than the truth on others. But the fact is that they are in both instances as fraudulant as he would be that exacted more than his due from his debtors, and paid less than their due to his creditors.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Saying Less, Balance, Debtors

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

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• 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

  Stars, Light, Darkness

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• Self-denial is often the sacrifice of one sort of self-love for another.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Sacrifice, Self, Denial

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