Words matter. These are the best Charles Caleb Colton Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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.
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.
Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.
There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.
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.
He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.
There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.
In religion as in politics it so happens that we have less charity for those who believe half our creed, than for those who deny the whole of it.
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.
Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.
Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for when we fail, our pride supports us – when we succeed, it betrays us.
Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.
The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.
True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.
Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.
Those who visit foreign nations, but associate only with their own country-men, change their climate, but not their customs. They see new meridians, but the same men; and with heads as empty as their pockets, return home with traveled bodies, but untravelled minds.
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.
War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.
If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.
That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
I’m aiming by the time I’m fifty to stop being an adolescent.
The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.
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.
Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false.
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.
We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.
There are three difficulties in authorship: to write anything worth publishing, to find honest men to publish it, and to find sensible men to read it.
Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.
Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.
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.
True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.
Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
Friendship, of itself a holy tie, is made more sacred by adversity.
Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.
Friendship, of itself a holy tie, is made more sacred by adversity.
The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.
War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.
To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.
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.
The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.
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.
There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
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.
Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.
None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them.
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.
Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.
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.
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.
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.
The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.
The firmest of friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.
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.
The present time has one advantage over every other – it is our own.
Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.
He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.
When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
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.
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.
Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.
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.
That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
Our incomes should be like our shoes; if too small, they will gall and pinch us; but if too large, they will cause us to stumble and to trip.
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