“Sincerely to aspire after virtue, is to gain her; and zealously to labour after her wages, is to receive them.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“There are some who write, talk, and think, so much about vice and virtue, that they have no time to practice either the one or the other.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“All wars of interference, arising from an officious intrusion into the concerns of other states; all wars of ambition, carried on for the purposes of aggrandizement; and all wars of aggression, undertaken for the purpose of forcing an assent to this or that set of religious opinions; all such wars are criminal in their very outset, and have hypocrisy for their common base.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words Addressed to Those who Think
“Our wealth is often a snare to ourselves, and always a temptation to others.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“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. Wealth, after all, is a relative thing, since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much but wants more. True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.”
“Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“The next thing to having wisdom ourselves, is to profit by that of others.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“The wise man has his follies, no less than the fool; but it has been said that herein lies the difference--the follies of the fool are known to the world, but hidden from himself; the follies of the wise are known to himself, but hidden from the world.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“There is no quality of the mind, or of the body, that so instantaneously and irresistibly captivates, as wit. An elegant writer has observed that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. He that deserts the latter, and gives himself up entirely to the guidance of the former, will certainly fall into many pitfalls and quagmires, like him who walks by flashes of lightning, rather than the steady beams of the sun.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“The plainest man who pays attention to women, will sometimes succeed as well as the handsomest man who does not.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“Pleasure is to a woman what the sun is to the flower: if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates, and destroys. But the duties of domestic life, exercised as they must be in retirement, and calling forth all the sensibilities of the female, are perhaps as necessary to the full development of her charms, as the shade and the shower are to the rose, confirming its beauty, and increasing its fragrance.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“A high degree of intellectual refinement in the female is the surest pledge society can have for the improvement of the male.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“Words are in this respect like water, that they often take their taste, flavour, and character, from the mouth out of which they proceed, as the water from the channel through which it flows.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Power. like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation. To acquire it, appears not more difficult than to be dispossessed of it when acquired, since it enables the holder to shift his own errors on dependents, and to take their merits to himself. But the miracle of losing it vanishes, when we reflect that we are as liable to fall as to rise, by the treachery of others; and that to say "I am" is language that has been appropriated exclusively to God!”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“An honest man will continue to be so though surrounded on all sides by rogues.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“Oppression cannot prosper where none will submit to be enslaved.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“A society composed of none but the wicked could not exist; it contains within itself the seeds of its own destruction, and without a flood, would be swept away from the earth by the deluge of its own iniquity.”
Source: L.P.
“The temple of truth is built indeed of stones of crystal, but, inasmuch as men have been concerned in rearing it, it has been consolidated by a cement composed of baser materials.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“There are many who say more than the truth on some occasions, and balance the account with their consciences by saying less than the truth on others. But the fact is that they are in both instances as fraudulant as he would be that exacted more than his due from his debtors, and paid less than their due to his creditors.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root. CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Lacon; Or, Many Things in a Few Words Light, whether it be material or moral, is the best reformer; for it prevents those disorders which other remedies sometimes cure, but sometimes confirm.”
“put on the livery of the best master only to serve the worst.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“From the preponderance of talent, we may always infer the soundness and vigour of the commonwealth; but from the preponderance of riches, its dotage and degeneration.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“Many a man may thank his talent for his rank, but no man has ever been able to return the compliment by thanking his rank for his talent.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Instead of exhibiting talent in the hope that the world would forgive their eccentricities, they have exhibited only their eccentricities, in the hope that the world would give them credit for talent.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Many ... begin to make converts from motives of charity, but continue to do so from motives of pride. ... Charity is contented with exhortation and example, but pride is not to be so easily satisfied. ... Whenever we find ourselves more inclined to persecute than persuade, we may then be certain that our zeal has more of pride in it than of charity.”
“Wit may do very well for a mistress, but [I] should prefer reason for a wife.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“The gamester, if he die a martyr to his profession, is doubly ruined. He adds his soul to every other loss, and by the act of suicide, renounces earth to forfeit Heaven.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“Drunkenness is the vice of a good constitution or of a bad memory of a constitution so treacherously good that it never bends till it breaks; or of a memory that recollects the pleasures of getting intoxicated, but forgets the pains of getting sober.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Discretion has been termed the better part of valour, and it is more certain, that diffidence is the better part of knowledge.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Honesty is not only the deepest policy, but the highest wisdom; since, however difficult it may be for integrity to get on, it is a thousand times more difficult for knavery to get off; and no error is more fatal than that of those who think that Virtue has no other reward because they have heard that she is her own.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“When the air balloon was first discovered, some one flippantly asked Dr. Franklin what was the use of it. The doctor answered this question by asking another: "What is the use of a new-born infant? It may become a man."”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“Accustom yourself to submit on all and every occasion, and on the most minute, no less than on the most important circumstances of life, to a small present evil, to obtain a greater distant good. This will give decision, tone, and energy to the mind, which, thus disciplined, will often reap victory from defeat and honor from repulse.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.”
“Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
“Sir Richard Steele has observed, that there is this difference between the Church of Rome and the Church of England: the one professes to be infallible, the other to be never in the wrong.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“There is one passage in the Scriptures to which all the potentates of Europe seem to have given their unanimous assent and approbation...."There went out a decree in the days of Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed."”
“He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigal of the most precious things.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Happiness ... leads none of us by the same route.”
Source: Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son on men and manners. To which are added, selections from Colton's 'Lacon'.
“We make a goddess of Fortune ... and place her in the highest heaven. But it is not fortune that is exalted and powerful, but we ourselves that are abject and weak.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“It has been shrewdly said, that when, men abuse us we should suspect ourselves, and when they praise us, them. It is a rare instance of virtue to despise which censure which we do not deserve; and still more rare to despise praise which we do.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“Make the most of the day, by determining to spend it on two sorts of acquaintances only--those by whom something may be got, and those from whom something may be learned.”
“We shall at all times chance upon men of recondite acquirements, but whose qualifications, from the incommunicative and inactive habits of their owners, are as utterly useless to others as though the possessors had them not.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“He that has never known adversity is but half acquainted with others, or with himself.”
Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
“Any one can give advice, such as it is, but only a wise man knows how to profit by it.”
“It is with antiquity as with ancestry, nations are proud of the one, and individuals of the other; but if they are nothing in themselves, that which is their pride ought to be their humiliation.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“The pride of ancestry is a superstructure of the most imposing height, but resting on the most flimsy foundation. It is ridiculous enough to observe the hauteur with which the old nobility look down on the new. The reason of this puzzled me a little, until I began to reflect that most titles are respectable only because they are old; if new, they would be despised, because all those who now admire the grandeur of the stream would see nothing but the impurity of the source.”
Source: Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
“Anger is practical awkwardness.”
“A thorough-paced antiquary not only remembers what all other people have thought proper to forget, but he also forgets what all other people think is proper to remember.”
Source: Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
