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Charles Caleb Colton

Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

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Famous Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

“The cynic who twitted Aristippus by observing that the philosopher who could dine on herbs might despise the company of a king, was well replied to by Aristippus, when he remarked that the philosopher who could enjoy the company or a king might also despise a dinner of herbs.”

WellsMightEnjoyCompanyKingsPhilosopherDinnerDespiseObservingHerbsCynicDine
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Few things are more agreeable to self-love than revenge, and yet no cause so effectually restrains us from revenge as self-love. And this paradox naturally suggests another; that the strength of the community is not unfrequently built upon the weakness of those individuals that compose it.”

SelfIndividualCausesCommunitySelf LoveWeaknessBuiltRevengeParadox
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Some philosophers would give a sex to revenge, and appropriate it almost exclusively to the female mind. But, like most other vices, it is of both genders; yet, because wounded vanity and slighted love are the two most powerful excitements to revenge, it has been thought, perhaps, to rage with more violence in the female heart.”

GivingMindHeartHas BeensTwoSexPowerfulViolenceFemalePhilosopherVicesGenderRevengeRageVanityExcitementAppropriateMost PowerfulWoundedSlightedFemale Mind
Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“If there be a pleasure on earth which angels cannot enjoy, and which they might almost envy man the possession of, it is the power of relieving distress--if there be a pain which devils might pity man for enduring, it is the death-bed reflection that we have possessed the power of doing good, but that we have abused and perverted it to purposes of ill.”

IfsMenMightEarthPainPurposeEnjoyPleasureBedReflectionDevilAngelCharityEndureIllPossessionEnvyPityPossessedDistressDoing GoodDeath Bed
Book:L.P.
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“Very great personages are not likely to form very just estimates either of others or of themselves; their knowledge of themselves is obscured by the flattery of others; their knowledge of others is equally clouded by circumstances peculiar to themselves. For in the presence of the great, the modest are sure to suffer from too much diffidence, and the confident from too much display.”

CharacterFormSufferingToo MuchCircumstancesPeculiarDisplayModestFlatteryCloudedGreat PersonDiffidence
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Posthumous fame is a plant of tardy growth, for our body must be the seed of it; or we may liken it to a torch, which nothing but the last spark of life can light up; or we may compare it to the trumpet of the archangel, for it is blown over the dead; but unlike that awful blast, it is of earth, not of heaven, and can neither rouse nor raise us.”

MayBodyLightEarthLastsHeavenGrowthFameRaisesPlantSeedsAwfulCompareSparksBlastTrumpetsTorchesLight UpArchangelPosthumous
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Natural good is' so intimately connected with moral good, and natural evil with moral evil, that I am as certain as if I heard a voice from heaven proclaim it, that God is on the side of virtue. He has learnt much, and has not lived in vain, who has practically discovered that most strict and necessary connection, that does and will ever exist between vice and misery, and virtue and happiness.”

IfsDoeCertainEvilHeavenSidesVoiceNaturalMoralVirtueHeardGoodnessConnectionsMiseryVicesConnectedVainStrictVirtue And HappinessMoral Evil
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Happiness is much more equally divided than some of us imagine. One man shall possess most of the materials, but little of the thing; another may possess much of the thing, but very few of the material. In this particular view of it, happiness had been beautifully compared to the man in the desert--he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.”

MenMayLittlesHappinessViewsImagineParticularHe ManMaterialsDesertOne ManDivided
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“It is with honesty in one particular as with wealth,--those that have the thing care less about the credit of it than those who have it not. No poor man can well afford to be thought so, and the less of honesty a finished rogue possesses the less he can afford to be supposed to want it.”

MenWantWellsCareWealthPoorHonestyParticularCreditFinishedPoor ManRogues
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Love is an alchemist that can transmute poison into food--and a spaniel, that prefers even punishment from one hand to caresses from another. But it is in love as in war, we are often more indebted for our success to the weakness of the defence than to the energy of the attack; for mere idleness has ruined more women than passion; vanity more than idleness, and credulity more than either.”

LoveWarHandsPassionEnergyLove IsWeaknessMerePunishmentVanityPoisonRuinedIdlenessDefenceAlchemistCaressCredulityIndebtedSpaniels
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“The plainest man that can convince a woman that he is really in love with her has done more to make her in love with him than the handsomest man, if he can produce no such conviction. For the love of woman is a shoot, not a seed, and flourishes most vigorously only when ingrafted on that love which is rooted in the breast of another.”

IfsMenLoveDoneProduceConvictionSeedsBreastsConvinceRooted
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words : Addressed to Those who Think
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“Like the rainbow, peace rests upon the earth, but its arch is lost in heaven. Heaven bathes it in hues of light--it springs up amid tears and clouds--it is a reflection of the eternal sun--it is an assurance of calm--it is the sign of a great covenant between God and man--it is an emanation from the distant orb of immortal light.”

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Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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