Charles Caleb Colton Quotes
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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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Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
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Marriage is a feast where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner.
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Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more.
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The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.
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We ask advice, but we mean approbation.
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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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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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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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Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.
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We own almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.
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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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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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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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Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.
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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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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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To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.
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To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it; the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.
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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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Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.
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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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There are two way of establishing a reputation, one to be praised by honest people and the other to be accused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the first one, because it will always be accompanied by the latter.
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There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.