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Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think

Book by Charles Caleb Colton · 20 quotes · Men, Ifs, May

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Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think Quotes

“If martyrdom is now on the decline, it is not because martyrs are less zealous, but because martyr-mongers are more wise. The light of intellect has put out the fire of persecution, as other fires are observed to smoulder before the light of the same.”

IfsLightFireWiseIntellectDeclinePersecutionMartyrMartyrdomZealous
Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“For all the practical purposes of life, truth might as well be in a prison as in the folio of a schoolman; and those who release her from her cobwebbed shelf and teach her to live with men have the merit of liberating, if not of discovering, her.”

IfsMenWellsMightPurposeTeachPrisonPracticalsReleaseMeritPurpose Of LifeDiscoveringTruth Of LifeShelvesLiberatingAuthorship
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“Dreams ought to produce no conviction whatever on philosophical minds. If we consider how many dreams are dreamt every night, and how many events occur every day, we shall no longer wonder at those accidental coincidences which ignorance mistakes for verifications.”

IfsMindDreamNightMistakeWonderEventsProduceIgnoranceOughtPhilosophicalConvictionEvery NightCoincidenceVerification
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“Emulation has been termed a spur to virtue, and assumes to be a spur of gold. But it is a spur composed of baser materials, and if tried in the furnace will be found to want that fixedness which is the characteristic of gold. He that pursues virtue, only to surpass others, is not far from wishing others less forward than himself; and he that rejoices too much at his own perfections will be too little grieved at the defects of other men.”

IfsMenWantLittlesHas BeensFoundWishVirtueToo MuchMaterialsPerfectionGoldAssumingPursueCharacteristicsRejoiceDefectsSpursFurnacesEmulation
Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“If it be true that men of strong imaginations are usually dogmatists--and I am inclined to think it is so--it ought to follow that men of weak imaginations are the reverse; in which case we should have some compensation for stupidity. But it unfortunately happens that no dogmatist is more obstinate or less open to conviction than a fool.”

IfsThinkingMenShouldHappensStrongImaginationCasesFoolOughtWeakShould HaveConvictionStupidityBeing TrueReverseCompensationObstinateObstinacy
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“We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine, but if defer tasting them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.”

IfsMayLongFeelingsAgeHappinessPleasureEmotionEmotionalWineLaysAnticipationFinding HappinessTastingAlways HappyJust Be HappyKey To HappinessAlways Be HappyFound HappinessWine TastingHe Makes Me Happy
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“Heaven may have happiness as utterly unknown to us as the gift of perfect vision would be to a man born blind. If we consider the inlets of pleasure from five senses only, we may be sure that the same Being who created us could have given us five hundred, if He had pleased.”

IfsMenMayWould BeGivenHeavenBornPerfectPleasureVisionFiveBlessingHundredBlindSensesFive Senses
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“Shrewd and crafty politicians, when they wish to bring about an unpopular measure, must not go straight forward to work, if they do they will certainly fail; and failures to men in power, are like defeats to a general, they shake their popularity. Therefore, since they cannot sail in the teeth of the wind, they must tack, and ultimately gain their object, by appearing at times to be departing from it.”

IfsMenPoliticalWishFailingObjectsWindPoliticianGainsDefeatTeethShakesPopularitySailAppearingCraftyDeparting
Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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