Charles Caleb Colton quotes - page 3

For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success. (Charles Caleb Colton)
Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.
Charles Caleb Colton
In life we shall find many men that are great, and some that are good, but very few men that are both great and good.
Charles Caleb Colton
That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
Charles Caleb Colton
Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
Charles Caleb Colton
We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.
Charles Caleb Colton
There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
Charles Caleb Colton
Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false.
Charles Caleb Colton
Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.
Charles Caleb Colton
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
War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies. (Charles Caleb Colton)
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
Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.
Charles Caleb Colton
Life isn't like a book. Life isn't logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess.
Charles Caleb Colton
Patience is the support of weakness; impatience the ruin of strength.
Charles Caleb Colton
Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.
Charles Caleb Colton
No company is preferable to bad. We are more apt to catch the vices of others than virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.
Charles Caleb Colton
Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it; since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live.
Charles Caleb Colton
Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.
Charles Caleb Colton
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
The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other. (Charles Caleb Colton)
Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.
Charles Caleb Colton
None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them.
Charles Caleb Colton
Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.
Charles Caleb Colton
He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
Charles Caleb Colton