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Charles Caleb Colton

Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

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Famous Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

“Extemporaneous and oral harangues will always have this advantage over those that are read from a in manuscript: every burst of eloquence or spark of genius they may contain, however studied they may have been beforehand, will appear to the audience to be the effect of the sudden inspiration of talent.”

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Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Idleness is the grand Pacific Ocean of life, and in that stagnant abyss the most salutary things produce no good, the most noxious no evil. Vice, indeed, abstractedly considered, may be, and often is engendered in idleness; but the moment it becomes efficiently vice, it must quit its cradle and cease to be idle.”

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Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“There is an elasticity in the human mind, capable of bearing much, but which will not show itself, until a certain weight of affliction be put upon it; its powers may be compared to those vehicles whose springs are so contrived that they get on smoothly enough when loaded, but jolt confoundedly when they have nothing to bear.”

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Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Genius, when employed in works whose tendency it is to demoralize and to degrade us, should be contemplated with abhorrence rather than with admiration; such a monument of its power, may indeed be stamped with immortality, but like the Coliseum at Rome, we deplore its magnificence because we detest the purposes for which it was designed.”

ShouldMayPurposeGeniusTendenciesImmortalityAdmirationRomeEmployedMonumentDegradeDetestMagnificenceAbhorrenceColiseum
Book:Lacon: or, Many things in few words
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“Hypocrites act by virtue.... They frame many counterfeits of her, with which they make an ostentatious parade, in all public assemblies, and processions; but the original of what they counterfeit, and which may indeed be said to have fallen from heaven, they produce so seldom, that it is cankered by the rust of sloth, and useless from non-application.”

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

GivingShouldMindWellsMayReasonBodyFallWalksQualitySunWifeWitFormerDesertGuidanceLatterSteadyFlashLightningElegantMistressBeamPitfallsQuagmire
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“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.”

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Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“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.”

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Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat; and worldly wisdom dictates to her disciples the propriety of dressing somewhat beyond their means, but of living somewhat within them,--for every one, sees how we dress, but none see how we live, except we choose to let them. But the truly great are, by universal suffrage, exempted from these trammels, an may live or dress as they please.”

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Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“It is adverse to talent to be consorted and trained up with inferior minds and inferior companions, however high they may rank. The foal of the racer neither finds out his speed nor calls out his powers if pastured out with the common herd, that are destined for the collar and the yoke.”

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

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Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“All who have been great and good without Christianity would have been much greater and better with it. If there be, amongst the sons of men, a single exception to this maxim, the divine Socrates may be allowed to put in the strongest claim. It was his high ambition to deserve, by deeds, not by creeds, an unrevealed heaven, and by works, not by faith, to enter an unpromised land.”

IfsMenMayHas BeensHeavenChristianityGreaterLandDivineSonAmbitionDeserveClaimsDeedsExceptionStrongestCreedsMaximsHigh Ambition
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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“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.”

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

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Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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“To diminish envy, let us consider not what others possess, but what they enjoy; mere riches may be the gift of lucky accident or blind chance, but happiness must be the result of prudent preference and rational design; the highest happiness then can have no other foundation than the deepest wisdom; and the happiest fool is only as happy as he knows how to be.”

KnowsMayEnjoyChanceResultsKnow HowDesignFoolLuckyHighestFoundationBlindMereEnvyAccidentsRichesRationalDiminishPreferencePrudent
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“The blindness of bigotry, the madness of ambition, and the miscalculations of diplomacy seek their victims principally amongst the innocent and the unoffending. The cottage is sure to suffer for every error of the court, the cabinet, or the camp. When error sits in the seat of power and of authority, and is generated in high places, it may be compared to that torrent which originates indeed in the mountain, but commits its devastation in the vale.”

MaySufferingMountainAuthorityAmbitionMadnessVictimCourtErrorsCommitInnocentSeatsBigotryCampsBlindnessDiplomacyCabinetsCottagesDevastationHigh PlacesMiscalculations
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“We must suit the flattery to the mind and taste of the recipient. We do not put essences into hogsheads, nor porter into phials. Delicate minds may be disgusted by compliments that would please a grosser intellect; as some fine ladies who would be shocked at the idea of a dram will not refuse a liqueur.”

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Book:Lacon: or, Many things in few words
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“We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves. When we see the martyr to virtue, subject as he is to the infirmities of a man, yet suffering the tortures of a demon, and bearing them with the magnanimity of a God, do we not behold a heroism that angels may indeed surpass, but which they cannot imitate, and must admire.”

ThinkingMenMaySufferingVirtueSubjectsHumilityAngelAdmireTortureDemonHeroismMartyrInfirmityMagnanimity
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“If often happens too, both in courts and in cabinets, that there are two things going on together,--a main plot and an under-plot; and he that understands only one of them will, in all probability, be the dupe of both. A mistress may rule a monarch, but some obscure favorite may rule the mistress.”

IfsMayTwoHappensTogetherCourtTwo ThingsPlotObscureProbabilityIntrigueMistressCabinetsMonarchsDupes
Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Love may exist without jealousy, although this is rare: but jealousy may exist without love, and this is common; for jealousy can feed on that which is bitter no less than on that which is sweet, and is sustained by pride as often as by affection.”

MayCommonSweetPrideAffectionBitterJealousyWithout LoveLove JealousyLove And Jealousy
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“As the grand discordant harmony of the celestial bodies may be explained by the simple principles of gravity and impulse, so also in that more wonderful and complicated microcosm, the heart of man, all the phenomena of morals are perhaps resolvable into one single principle, the pursuit of apparent good; for although customs universally vary, yet man in all climates and countries is essentially the same.”

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