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Ability
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To sentence a man of true genius, to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse on a treadmill.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Adversity
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There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Advice
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We ask advice but we mean approbation.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Age
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The excess of our youth are checks written against our age and they are payable with interest thirty years later.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Ambition
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Ambition makes the same mistake concerning power that avarice makes concerning wealth. She begins by accumulating power as a means to happiness, and she finishes by continuing to accumulate it as an end.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Angels
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Were we as eloquent as angels we still would please people much more by listening rather than talking.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Anger
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The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Argument & Debate
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It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Authors & Writing
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To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Belief
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He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Bravery
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Physical courage, which engages all danger, will make a person brave in one way; and moral courage, which defies all opinion, will make a person brave in another.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Business
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Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Charity
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Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness, when bequeathed by those who. when alive, would not have contributed.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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City Life, Cities
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If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Conflict
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Those that are the loudest in their threats are the weakest in their actions.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Conversation
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Repartee is perfect when it effects its purpose with a double edge. It is the highest order of wit, as it indicates the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius, at a moment when the passions are roused.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Reply to wit with gravity, and to gravity with wit.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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They that are loudest in their threats are the weakest in the execution of them. It is probable that he who is killed by lightning hears no noise; but the thunder-clap which follows, and which most alarms the ignorant, is the surest proof of their safety.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Corruption
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There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Danger
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Death
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Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Decisions
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Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness or oppose with firmness.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Defeat
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My lowest days as a Christian and There Were Low Ones--Seven Months Worth Of Them In Prison, To Be Exact have been more fulfilling and rewarding than all the days of glory in the White House.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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When the frustration of my helplessness seemed greatest, I discovered God's grace was more than sufficient. And after my imprisonment, I could look back and see how God used my powerlessness for His purpose. What He has chosen for my most significant witness was not my triumphs or victories, but my defeat.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Determination
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Doubt
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Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Economics
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Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Education
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It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Facts
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Pedantry is the showy display of knowledge which crams our heads with learned lumber and then takes out our brains to make room for it.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Fame
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Family
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The family is the most basic unit of government. As the first community to which a person is attached and the first authority under which a person learns to live, the family establishes society's most basic values.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Fashion
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Ladies of Fashion starve their happiness to feed their vanity, and their love to feed their pride.
-Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, 1825
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Fear
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We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Freedom
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Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Friends
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Friendship, of itself a holy tie, is made more sacred by adversity.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Genius
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Gossip
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None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Greed
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Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Happiness
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There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he who thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meandering, but leads none of us by the same route
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Hate
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We hate some persons because we do not know them, and will not know them because we hate them.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Health
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Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Honor
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Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Humility
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The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is humility.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Humor
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Levity is often less foolish and gravity less wise than each of them appears.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Identity
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He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Integrity
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Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straight forward and simple integrity in another.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Knowledge
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To despise our own species is the price we must often pay for knowledge of it.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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We own almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Law
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Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Life
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Logic
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Logic is a large drawer, containing some useful instruments, and many more that are superfluous. A wise man will look into it for two purposes, to avail himself of those instruments that are really useful, and to admire the ingenuity with which those that are not so, are assorted and arranged.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Love
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Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Love is an alliance of friendship and animalism; if the former predominates it is passion exalted and refined; if the latter, gross and sensual.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Marriage
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Never join with your friend when he abuses his horse or his wife, unless the one is to be sold and the other to be buried.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Memory
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Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Moderation
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Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Money
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Our income are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and trip.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Morals
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Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly, that utility is the test of their value.
-Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, 1820
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Mystery
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Mystery is not profoundness.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Mystery magnifies danger, as a fog the sun, the hand that warned Belshazzar derived its horrifying effect from the want of a body.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Opinion
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Opinions, like showers, are generated in high places, but they invariably descend into lower ones, and ultimately flow down to the people as rain unto the sea.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Opportunity
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Subtract from the great man all that he owes to opportunity, all that he owes to chance, and all that he gained by the wisdom of his friends and the folly of his enemies, and the giant will often be seen to be a pygmy.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Past, the
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To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Patience
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Patience is the support of weakness; impatience the ruin of strength
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Philosophy
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Philosophy is a bully that talks loud when the danger is at a distant; but, the moment she is pressed hard by an enemy, she is nowhere to be found and leaves the brunt of the battle to be fought by her steady, humble comrade, religion.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Power
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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No man is wise enough, or good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Praise
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Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Prejudice
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Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Pride
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Of all the marvelous works of God, perhaps the one angels view with the most supreme astonishment, is a proud man.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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There is this paradox in pride -- it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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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; when we succeed; it betrays us.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Progress
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Prudence
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There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Questions
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Reading
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Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Relationships
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In all societies, it is advisable to associate if possible with the highest; not that the highest are always the best, but because, if disgusted there, we can descend at any time; but if we begin with the lowest, to ascend is impossible.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Reputation
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Results
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Sight
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Men are born with two eyes, but only one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Silence
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Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Solitude
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To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.
-Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, 1825
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Soul
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Secrecy is the soul of all great designs.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Success & Failure
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When we fail our pride supports us and when we succeed, it betrays us.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Suicide
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton, The Lacon, 1829
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Sympathy
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Pity is a thing often vowed, seldom felt; hatred is a thing often felt, seldom avowed.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Thought
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He that thinks he is the happiest man, really is so. But he that thinks he is the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Time
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Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time, which every day produces, and which most men throw away, but which nevertheless will make at the end of it no small deduction for the life of man.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Time; that black and narrow isthmus between two eternities.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Tolerance
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As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Truth
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Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Wealth
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It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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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.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by other men.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Wisdom
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The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Women
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In America every woman has her set of girl-friends; some are cousins, the rest are gained at school. These form a permanent committee who sit on each other's affairs, who come out together, marry and divorce together, and who end as those groups of bustling, heartless well-informed club-women who govern society. Against them the Couple of Ehepaar is helpless and Man in their eyes but a biological interlude.
-Charles Caleb Colton
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Books by and about Charles Caleb Colton
