Charles Caleb Colton Quotes - Page 7

• It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wise, Argument, Maxims

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• Human foresight often leaves its proudest possessor only a choice of evils.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Evil, Decision, Choices

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.210

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• Honesty is not only the deepest policy, but the highest wisdom; since, however difficult it may be for integrity to get on, it is a thousand times more difficult for knavery to get off; and no error is more fatal than that of those who think that Virtue has no other reward because they have heard that she is her own.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Honesty, Integrity, Thinking

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

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• The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Fellow Man, Opinion

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.365

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• If a cause be good, the most violent attack of its enemies will not injure it so much as an injudicious defence of it by its friends.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Enemy, Causes, Violent

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.215

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• A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which was intended for her preservation.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Anchors, Storm, Debt

  Charles Caleb Colton (1821). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.92

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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 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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• 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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• 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 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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