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Charles Caleb Colton

Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

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Famous Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

“The truly great consider, first, how they may gain the approbation of God, and, secondly, that of their own conscience. Having done this, they would then willingly conciliate the good opinion of their fellow-men. But the truly little reverse the thing. The primary object with them is to secure the applause of their fellow-men; and having effected this, the approbation of God and their own conscience may follow on as they can.”

MenFirstsMayLittlesDoneOpinionAtheismObjectsConscienceGainsFellowsSecurePrimariesReverseFellow ManApplause
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Some men are very entertaining for a first interview, but after that they are exhausted, and run out; on a second meeting we shall find them flat and monotonous; like hand-organs, we have heard all their tunes.”

MenFirstsHandsRunningHeardConversationMeetingsInterviewsTunesFlatsEntertainingOrgansExhaustedMonotonous
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“A town, before it can be plundered and, deserted, must first be taken; and in this particular Venus has borrowed a law from her consort Mars. A woman that wishes to retain her suitor must keep him in the trenches; for this is a siege which the besieger never raises for want of supplies, since a feast is more fatal to love than a fast, and a surfeit than a starvation. Inanition may cause it to die a slow death, but repletion always destroys it by a sudden one.”

WantFirstsMayLawDiesWishCausesTakenParticularTownsRaisesMarsStarvationBorrowedSuppliesVenusCourtshipDesertedTrenchesSiegeSuitors
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Custom is the law of one description of fools, and fashion of another; but the two parties often clash--for precedent is the legislator of the first, and novelty of the last. Custom, therefore, looks to things that are past, and fashion to things that are present.”

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Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“When all moves equally (says Pascal), nothing seems to move as in a vessel under sail; and when all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so. He that stops first, views as from a fixed point the horrible extravagance that transports the rest.”

FirstsSeemsRunningMovingViewsCommonVicesHorribleFixedSailConsentVesselTransportExtravagancePascal
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words Addressed to Those who Think
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“We strive as hard to hide our hearts from ourselves as from others, and always with more success; for in deciding upon our own case we are both judge, jury, and executioner, and where sophistry cannot overcome the first, or flattery the second, self-love is always ready to defeat the sentence by bribing the third.”

FirstsHeartSelfHardLove IsCasesReadyJudgingSelf LoveThirdsOvercomingStriveDefeatSentencesFlatteryJuryExecutionersSophistry
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“There are circumstances of peculiar difficulty and danger, where a mediocrity of talent is the most fatal quantum that a man can possibly possess. Had Charles the First and Louis the Sixteenth been more wise or more weak, more firm or more yielding, in either case they had both of them saved their heads.”

MenFirstsCasesWiseTalentDangerCircumstancesWeakDifficultySavedFirmPeculiarMediocrityQuantum
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“It is in the middle classes of society that all the finest feeling, and the most amiable propensities of our nature do principally nourish and abound. For the good opinion of our fellow-men is the strongest though not the purest motive to virtue. The privations of poverty render us too cold and callous, and the privileges of property too arrogant and confidential, to feel; the first places us beneath the influence of opinion--the second, above it.”

MenFeelsFirstsFeelingsOpinionClassPovertyVirtueSocietyInfluenceMiddleColdFellowsPropertyPrivilegeMotiveMiddle ClassStrongestArrogantFinestFellow ManPropensityAmiableCallousConfidentialClasses Of Society
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“When I meet with any persons who write obscurely or converse confusedly, I am apt to suspect two things; first, that such persons do not understand themselves; and secondly, that they are not worthy of being understood by others.”

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