Charles Caleb Colton Quotes
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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.
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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.
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True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
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We should have a glorious conflagration, if all who cannot put fire into their works would only consent to put their works into the fire.
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Pedantry prides herself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right, without them.
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Ladies of Fashion starve their happiness to feed their vanity, and their love to feed their pride.
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If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition.
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We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.
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Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.
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There is this difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.
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Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
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He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
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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.
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Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.
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Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
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The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.
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The present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own.
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If we can advance any propositions that are both true and new, these are indisputably our own, by right of discovery; and if we can repeat what is old more briefly and brightly than others, this also becomes our own, by right of conquest.
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Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others.
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Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.
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Pedantry crams our heads with learned lumber, and takes out our brains to make room for it.
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With books, as with companions, it is of more consequence to know which to avoid, than which to choose; for good books are as scarce as good companions.
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That author, however, who has thought more than he has read, read more than he has written, and written more than he published, if he does not command success, has at least deserved it.
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Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.