Charles Caleb Colton Quotes
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Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.
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Our incomes should be like our shoes; if too small, they will gall and pinch us; but if too large, they will cause us to stumble and to trip.
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It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.
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The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.
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When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
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An elegant writer has observed, that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife.
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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.
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Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.
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A feast is more fatal to love than a fast, and a surfeit than a starvation.
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True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.
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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.
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If a horse has four legs, and I'm riding it, I think I can win.
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Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.
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He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.
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War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.
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When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good.
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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.
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Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.
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Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never.
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Mystery is not profoundness.
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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.
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Those who visit foreign nations, but associate only with their own country-men, change their climate, but not their customs. They see new meridians, but the same men; and with heads as empty as their pockets, return home with traveled bodies, but untravelled minds.
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To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for when we fail, our pride supports us - when we succeed, it betrays us.
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Friendship, of itself a holy tie, is made more sacred by adversity.