Charles Caleb Colton Quotes
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He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.
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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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Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
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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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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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There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
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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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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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Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.
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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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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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Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.
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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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We ask advice, but we mean approbation.
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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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The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.
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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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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.