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Charles Caleb Colton

Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

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Famous Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

“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.”

MindHumansMayEnoughShowsCertainBearsCapableSpringWeightAdversityHuman MindVehicleAfflictionLoadedElasticity
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“With respect to the authority of great names, it should be remembered that he alone deserves to have any weight and influence with posterity, who has shown himself superior to the particular and predominant error of his own times; who, like the peak of Teneriffe, has hailed the intellectual sun before its beams have reached the horizon of common minds.”

ShouldMindNamesCommonSunInfluenceParticularAuthorityIntellectualDeserveWeightErrorsSuperiorsRememberedHorizonPosterityBeam
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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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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“Accustom yourself to submit on all and every occasion, and on the most minute, no less than on the most important circumstances of life, to a small present evil, to obtain a greater distant good. This will give decision, tone, and energy to the mind, which, thus disciplined, will often reap victory from defeat and honor from repulse.”

GivingMindImportantEvilEnergyDecisionGreaterMinutesVictoryHonorCircumstancesDefeatOccasionsToneSubmitReapEvery Occasion
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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“That an author's work is the mirror of his mind is a position that has led to very false conclusions. If Satan himself were to write a book it would be in praise of virtue, because the good would purchase it for use, and the bad for ostentation.”

IfsWritingMindBookUseWould BeVirtuePositionPraiseMirrorsConclusionSatanAuthorshipOstentation
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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“It is a curious paradox that precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity, to those mysterious powers assumed by others; and in those regions of darkness and ignorance where man cannot effect even those things that are within the power of man, there we shall ever find that a blind belief in feats that are far beyond those powers has taken the deepest root in the minds of the deceived, and produced the richest harvest to the knavery of the deceiver.”

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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.”

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Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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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
Book:Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
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“Metaphysicians have been learning their lessons for the last four thousand years, and it is high time that they should now begin to teach us something. Can any of the tribe inform us why all the operations of the mind are carried on with undiminished strength and activity in dreams, except the judgment, which alone is suspended and dormant?”

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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.”

MindMayIdeasWould BeFinePleaseTasteEssenceRefuseIntellectSuitsComplimentDelicateShockedFlatteryDisgustedFine Lady
Book:Lacon: or, Many things in few words
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“Ignorance lies at the bottom of all human knowledge, and the deeper we penetrate the nearer we arrive unto it. For what do we truly know, or what can we clearly affirm, of any one of those important things upon which all our reasonings must of necessity be built--time and space, life and death, matter and mind?”

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Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Some well-meaning Christians tremble for their salvation, because they have never gone through that valley of tears and of sorrow, which they have been taught to consider as an ordeal that must be passed through before they can arrive at regeneration. To satisfy such minds, it may be observed, that the slightest sorrow for sin is sufficient, if it produce amendment, and that the greatest is insufficient, if it do not.”

IfsMindWellsMayHas BeensChristianSinGoneProduceTearsTaughtSorrowSalvationSufficientRepentanceValleysAmendmentsInsufficientRegenerationOrdeals
Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“All preceptors should have that kind of genius described by Tacitus, "equal to their business, but not above it;" a patient industry, with competent erudition; a mind depending more on its correctness than its originality, and on its memory rather than on its invention.”

ShouldMindKindMemoriesTeachingIndustryGeniusEqualShould HavePatientInventionOriginalityCompetentCorrectnessErudition
Book:Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Men of strong minds and who think for themselves, should not be discouraged on finding occasionally that some of their best ideas have been anticipated by former writers; they will neither anathematize others nor despair themselves. They will rather go on discovering things before discovered, until they are rewarded with a land hitherto unknown, an empire indisputably their own, both right of conquest and of discovery.”

ThinkingMenShouldMindHas BeensIdeasStrongLandGoes OnDespairFindingsDiscoveryFormerEmpiresDiscoveringConquestDiscouragedStrong MindDiscovering Things
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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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.”

MenWayMindLooksLittlesTwoActionJobsPurposeStrongDealsFireOfficeHundredWeakMarkHotConstantFingersTwo ThingsIronCagesSquirrelsWeak ManWeak MindsIrons In The Fire
Author:Charles Caleb Colton
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