The greatest and the most amiable privilege which the rich enjoy over the poor is that which they exercise the least,—the privilege of making others happy.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Riches, Helpfulness, Wealth
Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release; the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure; the comforter of him whom time cannot console.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Dying, Death
The wise man has his follies no less than the fool; but herein lies the difference—the follies of the fool are known to the world, but are hidden from himself; the follies of the wise man are known to himself, but hidden from the world.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Wisdom
Some men possess means that are great, but fritter them away in the execution of conceptions that are little; others, who can form great conceptions, attempt to carry them into execution with little means. These two descriptions of men might succeed if united, but kept asunder, both fail. It is a rare thing to find a combination of great means and of great conceptions in one mind.
—Charles Caleb Colton
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.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Make no enemies.—He is insignificant indeed who can do thee no harm.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Enemies
That which we acquire with most difficulty we retain the longest; as those who have earned a fortune are commonly more careful of it than those by whom it may have been inherited.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Wealth
Pedantiy prides herself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right without them. The former would rather stumble in following the dead, than walk upright by the profane assistance of the living.
—Charles Caleb Colton
There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest man really is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Wisdom, Happiness, Joy, Thought, Thinking, Home, Thoughts
It is with antiquity as with ancestry, nations are proud of the one, and individuals of the other; but if they are nothing in themselves, that which is their pride ought to be their humiliation.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Ancestry
Were we as eloquent as angels we still would please people much more by listening rather than talking.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Angels, Religion
It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Danger, Foresight
To judge by the event, is an error all abuse and all commit; for in every instance, courage, if crowned with success, is heroism; if clouded by defeat, temerity.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Judgment
In all societies, it is advisable to associate if possible with the highest; not that the highest are always the best, but because, if disgusted there, we can descend at any time; but if we begin with the lowest, to ascend is impossible.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Associates
It is good to act as if. It is even better to grow to the point where it is no longer an act.
—Charles Caleb Colton
The seeds of repentance are sown in youth by pleasure, but the harvest is reaped in age by suffering.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Pleasure
Most plagiarists, like the drone, have not the taste to select, the industry to acquire, nor the skill to improve, but impudently pilfer the honey ready prepared, from the hive.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Plagiarism
Contemporaries appreciate the man rather than his merit; posterity will regard the merit rather than the man.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Man, Memory, Merit, Appreciation
It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat; and worldly wisdom dictates the propriety of dressing somewhat beyond one’s means, but of living within them, for every one sees how we dress, but none see how we live unless we choose to let them.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Dress
Ambition is to the mind what the cap is to the falcon; it blinds us first, and then compels us to tower by reason of our blindness.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Ambition
We often regret we did not do otherwise, when that very otherwise would, in all probability, have done for us.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Regret
Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Liberty, Freedom
Words are but the signs and counters of knowledge, and their currency should be strictly regulated by the capital which they represent.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Words
Afflictions sent by providence melt the constancy of the noble minded, but confirm the obduracy of the vile, as the same furnace that liquifies the gold, hardens the clay.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Slander cannot make the subject of it either better or worse.—It may represent us in a false light, or place a likeness of us in a bad one, but we are always the same.—Not so the slanderer, for calumny always makes the calumniator worse, but the calumniated never.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Slander
To look back to antiquity is one thing, to go back to it is another.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: The Past, Past
He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men’s heads.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Identity, Self-Knowledge
Success seems to be that which forms the distinction between confidence and conceit.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Character, Success
Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Laziness
Patience is the support of weakness; impatience is the ruin of strength.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Patience
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Richard Hooker English Theologian, Political Theorist
- Henri Nouwen Dutch Catholic Priest
- Thomas Aquinas Italian Catholic Priest
- Sam Shoemaker American Episcopal Priest
- Jerome Greek Priest
- Desmond Tutu South African Clergyman
- Benjamin Whichcote British Religious Figure
- John Vianney French Catholic Priest
- E. Stanley Jones American Methodist Priest
- Virginia Woolf English Novelist
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