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Charles Caleb Colton

Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

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Famous Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

“There is not a little generalship and stratagem required in the managing and marshalling of our pleasures, so that each shall not mutually encroach to the destruction of all. For pleasures are very voracious, too apt to worry one another, and each, like Aaron's serpent, is prone to swallow up the rest. Thus drinking will soon destroy the power, gaming the means, and sensuality the taste, for other pleasures less seductive, but far more salubrious, and permanent as they are pure.”

MeanLittlesPleasureWorryTastePureDestructionDrinkingSensualityPermanentSeductiveSerpentGamingStratagem
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“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.”

IfsWorldWantShouldLittlesEnoughCausesWealthDependsShoesIncomeContentmentRelativeTubs
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“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.”

IfsLooksLittlesReasonEnoughWould BeSourcePrideFoundationRidiculousAdmireTitlesHeightStreamsNobilityRespectableGrandeurDespisedAncestryImposingPuzzledImpurity
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“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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“When young, we trust ourselves too much, and we trust others too little when old. Rashness is the error of youth, timid caution of age. Manhood is the isthmus between the two extremes; the ripe and fertile season of action, when alone we can hope to find the head to contrive, united with the hand to execute.”

LittlesTwoHandsAgeActionYoungUnitedToo MuchYouthConfidenceSeasonsErrorsExtremesManhoodCautionRipeFertileRashnessTrust OthersTwo Extremes
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“To be satisfied with the acquittal of the world, though accompanied with the secret condemnation of conscience, this is the mark of a little mind; but it requires a soul of no common stamp to be satisfied with its own acquittal, and to despise the condemnation of the world.”

WorldMindLittlesSoulCommonSecretConscienceMarkSatisfiedDespiseStampsCondemnationLittle MindsAcquittal
Book:Lacon: or, Many things in few words
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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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“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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“Lord Bacon has compared those who move in higher spheres to those heavenly bodies in the firmament, which have much admiration, but little rest. And it is not necessary to invest a wise man with power to convince him that it is a garment bedizened with gold, which dazzles the beholder by its splendor, but oppresses the wearer by its weight.”

MenLittlesBodyMovingLordWisePositionHigherGoldWeightConvinceHeavenlyAdmirationSpheresGarmentsSplendorBeholderDazzleFirmamentHeavenly BodiesLord Bacon
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice should go a little further, and try to plant a virtue in its place; otherwise he will have his labor to renew. A strong soil that has produced weeds may be made to produce wheat with far less difficulty than it would cost to make it produce nothing.”

ShouldTryingMayLittlesMadeEnoughEnergyStrongVirtueProduceCostLaborRootsConstitutionDifficultyPlantVicesSoilWeedWheat
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“Subtlety will sometimes give safety, no less than strength; and minuteness has sometimes escaped, where magnitude would have been crushed. The little animal that kills the boa is formidable chiefly from its insignificance, which is incompressible by the folds of its antagonist.”

GivingLittlesHas BeensSometimesAnimalSafetyFoldsCrushedMagnitudeSubtletyFormidableInsignificanceAntagonist
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“The reason why great men meet with so little pity or attachment in adversity, would seem to be this: the friends of a great man were made by his fortune, his enemies by himself, and revenge is a much more punctual paymaster than gratitude.”

MenLittlesMadeReasonSeemsEnemyGratitudeAdversityFortuneRevengePityReason WhyGreat MenAttachmentPunctual
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Time, the cradle of hope.... Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it: he that has made it his friend will have little to fear from his enemies, but he that has made it his enemy will have little to hope from his friends.”

LittlesMadeTimeOpportunityWalksBehindsEnemyMade ItRepentanceEnd TimesCradleConcept Of Time
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“We must be careful how we flatter fools too little, or wise men too much, for the flatterer must act the very reverse of the physician, and administer the strongest dose only to the weakest patient.”

MenLittlesToo MuchWiseFoolPatientCarefulStrongestBe CarefulReversePhysiciansFlatteryDoseFlatterer
Book:Lord Chesterfield's advice to his son on men and manners. To which are added, selections from Colton's 'Lacon'.
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“What is earthly happiness? that phantom of which we hear so much, and see so little; whose promises are constantly given and constantly broken, but as constantly believed; that cheats us with the sound instead of the substance, and with the blossom instead of the fruit. Like Juno, she is a goddess in pursuit, but a cloud in possession.”

LittlesHappinessGivenSoundBrokenPromiseFruitCloudsPossessionPursuitSubstanceGoddessCheatPhantoms
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“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.”

LittlesEventsRevolutionConsequenceExpectedRebellionRebelliousMagnitudeAmerican RevolutionFrench Revolution
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Men are more readily contented with no intellectual light than with a little; and wherever they have been taught to acquire some knowledge in order to please others, they have most generally gone on to acquire more, to please themselves.”

MenLittlesHas BeensLightOrderKnowledgeGoneTaughtPleaseIntellectualAcquireSelf Knowledge
Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“No men deserve the title of infidels so little as those to whom it has been usually applied; let any of those who renounce Christianity, write fairly down in a book all the absurdities that they believe instead of it, and they will find that it requires more faith to reject Christianity than to embrace it.”

MenWritingBelieveLittlesHas BeensBookChristianityDeserveEmbraceTitlesRejectsInfidelityAbsurdityRenounceInfidel
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“No two things differ more than hurry and dispatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind, dispatch of a strong one. A weak man in office, like a squirrel in a cage, is laboring eternally, but to no purpose, and is in constant motion without getting on a job; like a turnstile, he is in everybody's way, but stops nobody; he talks a great deal, but says very little; looks into everything but sees nothing; and has a hundred irons in the fire, but very few of them are hot, and with those few that are, he only burns his fingers.”

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Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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