Quotes By Charles Caleb Colton

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.

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.

Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

The firmest of friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.

Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.

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.

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.

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.

Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others.

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.

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.

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.

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 who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.

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.

Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase.

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.

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.

It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.

Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.

Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.

Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.