Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 7

• Falsehood is often rocked by truth, but she soon outgrows her cradle and discards her nurse.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Lying, Nurse, Cradle

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.10

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• If you are under obligations to many, it is prudent to postpone the recompensing of one, until it be in your power to remunerate all; otherwise you will make more enemies by what you give, than by what you withhold.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Giving, Enemy, Prudent

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

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• Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  God, Men, Law

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• That is true beauty which has not only a substance, but a spirit; a beauty that we must intimately know, justly to appreciate.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Beauty, Appreciate, Substance

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.137

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• 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

  Exercise, Privilege, Wealth

  Charles Caleb Colton (1866). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.268

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• It is seldom that statesmen have the option of choosing between a good and an evil.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Evil, Statesmen, Statesmanship

  Philip Dormer Stanhope (4th earl of Chesterfield.), Charles Caleb Colton (1861). “Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son on men and manners. To which are added, selections from Colton's 'Lacon'.”, p.230

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• Men pursue riches under the idea that their possession will set them at ease, and above the world. But the law of association often makes those who begin by loving gold as a servant finish by becoming themselves its slaves; and independence without wealth is at least as common as wealth without independence.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Law, Ideas

  Charles Caleb Colton (1821). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.171

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• The benevolent have the advantage of the envious, even in this present life; for the envious man is tormented not only by all the ill that befalls himself, but by all the good that happens to another; whereas the benevolent man is the better prepared to bear his own calamities unruffled, from the complacency and serenity he has secured from contemplating the prosperity of all around him.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Gratitude, Men, Serenity

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

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• Men are more readily contented with no intellectual light than with a little; and wherever they have been taught to acquire some knowledge in order to please others, they have most generally gone on to acquire more, to please themselves.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Knowledge, Men, Light

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.247

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• It is a mortifying truth, and ought to teach the wisest of us humility, that many of the most valuable discoveries have been the result of chance rather than of contemplation, and of accident rather than of design.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Humility, Discovery, Design

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.82

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• Mental pleasures never cloy; unlike those of the body, they are increased by reputation, approved by reflection, and strengthened by enjoyment.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Reflection, Body, Reputation

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• We are not more ingenious in searching out bad motives for good actions when performed by others, than good motives for bad actions when performed by ourselves.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Discovery, Atheism, Action

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.292

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• Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Book, Reading, Writing

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

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• Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Inspirational, Mean, Literature

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• 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

  Opportunity, Mind, Glory

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.46

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• As the rays of the sun, notwithstanding their velocity, injure not the eye, by reason of their minuteness, so the attacks of envy, notwithstanding their number, ought not to wound our virtue by reason of their insignificance.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Eye, Numbers, Envy

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.190

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• When certain persons abuse us, let us ask ourselves what description of characters it is that they admire; we shall often find this a very consolatory question.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Character, Abuse, Criticism

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.305

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• Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wise, Foolish, Gravity

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.169

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• In the pursuit of knowledge, follow it wherever it is to be found; like fern, it is the produce of all climates, and like coin, its circulation is not restricted to any particular class.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Knowledge, Class, Ferns

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.113

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• Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Genius, Literature, Nodding

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• Perfection doesn't exist... only good attempts.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wisdom, Perfection

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• Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve; we may give somewhat of novelty to that which was old, condensation to that which was diffuse, perspicuity to that which was obscure, and currency to that which was recondite.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Giving, May, Novelty

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.14

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• Opinions, like showers, are generated in high places, but they invariably descend into lower ones, and ultimately flow down to the people as rain unto the sea.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Rain, Sea, People

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.391

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• The three great apostles of practical atheism, that make converts without persecuting, and retain them without preaching, are wealth, health and power.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Atheism, Three, Wealth

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

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• The sun should not set upon our anger, neither should he rise upon our confidence. We should forgive freely, but forget rarely. I will not be revenged, and this I owe to my enemy; but I will remember, and this I owe to myself.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Forgiveness, Forgiving, Enemy

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.31

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