Charles Caleb Colton Quotes
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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 often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.
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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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Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
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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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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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There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
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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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Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others.
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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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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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Pedantry crams our heads with learned lumber, and takes out our brains to make room for it.
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Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.
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We ask advice, but we mean approbation.
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The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.
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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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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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Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.
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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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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.