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Quote by Charles Caleb Colton

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

This book is a compilation of short, insightful essays that explore a wide range of topics, encouraging readers to think critically and appreciate the power of succinct expression. more

Author

Charles Caleb Colton
Charles Caleb Colton

Charles Caleb Colton was an English writer active from 1780 to 1832. Known for his humor and wit, he is particularly recognized for his aphorisms and satirical works. more

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“Philosophers have widely differed as to the seat of the soul, and St. Paul has told us that out of the heart proceed murmurings; but there can be no doubt that the seat of perfect contentment is in the head, for every individual is thoroughly satisfied with his own proportion of brains.”

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Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“It is curious that we pay statesmen for what they say, not for what they do; and judge of them from what they do, not from what they say. Hence they have one code of maxims for profession and another for practice, and make up their consciences as the Neapolitans do their beds, with one set of furniture for show and another for use.”

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Book:Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan
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“Perhaps that is nearly the perfection of good writing which is original, but whose truth alone prevents the reader from suspecting that it is so; and which effects that for knowledge which the lens effects for the sunbeam, when it condenses its brightness in order to increase its force.”

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Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think
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“Some authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some, in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labor, therefore, to treat with ease of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicuity, of things that are profound.”

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

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