Charles Caleb Colton (1780–1832) was an English cleric, aphorist, writer, and collector.
Born possibly in Shrivenham, Berkshire, Colton was educated at Eton College and King’s College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1801 and a Master of Arts in 1804. He served as vicar of Kew and Petersham 1812–28 before fleeing England to dodge creditors.
Colton traveled all over the United States for two years and settled in Paris. There, he became an art collector, and wine collector, but lost much of his fortune in gambling. Following the discovery of an illness that necessitated surgery, Colton killed himself instead of undergoing the procedure.
Colton’s literary work includes compendiums of epigrammatic aphorisms and short essays on behavior and manners. His Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words (1820, 1822) gained full acceptance. He also published The Conflagration of Moscow (1826,) a work on Napoleon, and An Ode on the Death of Lord Byron (1831.) A 600 line-poem called ‘Modern Antiquity’ was never published.
One of Colton’s most famous quotes is, “Imitation is the sincerest [form] of flattery.”
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Charles Caleb Colton
Wars of opinion, as they have been the most destructive, are the most disgraceful of conflicts, being appeals from right to might and from argument to artillery
—Charles Caleb Colton
In life we shall find many men that are great, and some men that are good, but very few men that are both great and good.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Greatness
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.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Unhappiness
Though reason is progressive, instinct is stationary. Five thousand years have added no improvement to the hive of the bee, or the house of the beaver.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Moderation
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
Analogy, although it is not infallible, is yet that telescope of the mind by which it is marvelously assisted in the discovery of both physical and moral truth.
—Charles Caleb Colton
To be a mere verbal critic is what no man of genius would be if he could; but to be a critic of true taste and feeling, is what no man without genius could be if he would.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Critics
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
Topics: Style
Life often presents us with a choice of evils rather than of good.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Choice
He that will not permit his wealth to do any good to others while he is living, prevents it from doing any good to himself when he is dead; and by an egotism that is suicidal and has a double edge, cuts himself off from the truest pleasure here and the highest happiness hereafter.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Service, Wealth, Giving, Kindness
An elegant writer has observed, that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Observation made in the cloister or in the desert, will generally be as obscure as the one and as barren as the other; but he that would paint with his pencil must study originals, and not be over fearful of a little dust.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Observation
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.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Honesty
Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Service, Kindness, Charity, Giving
See that your character is right, and in the long run your reputation will be right.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Reputation
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 fellowmen.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Greatness
Literature has her quacks no less than medicine, and they are divided into two classes; those who have erudition without genius, and those who have volubility without depth; we get second-hand sense from the one, and original non sense from the other.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Literature
The hypocrite shows the excellence of virtue by the necessity he thinks himself under of seeming to be virtuous.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Hypocrisy
He that sympathizes in all the happiness of others, perhaps himself enjoys the safest happiness; and he that is warned by the folly of others has perhaps attained the soundest wisdom.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Sympathy, Wisdom
Many a man may thank his talent for his rank, but no man has ever been able to return the compliment by thanking his rank for his talent.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Time; that black and narrow isthmus between two eternities.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Time
Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will ascribe it to sinister and interested motives if they can.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Logic and metaphysics make use of more tools than all the rest of the sciences put together, and they do the least work.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Logic
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
Public charities and benevolent associations for the gratuitous relief of every species of distress, are peculiar to Christianity; no other system of civil or religious policy has originated them; they form its highest praise and characteristic feature.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Charity
Times of general calamity and collusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the lightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Greatness, Adversity, Difficulties, Determination
The excesses of our youth are drafts upon our old age, payable with interest, about thirty years after date.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Excess, Youth
A power above all human responsibility ought to be above all human attainment.
—Charles Caleb Colton
Topics: Responsibility
There are three difficulties in authorship:—to write anything worth publishing—to find honest men to publish it—and to get sensible men to read it.
—Charles Caleb Colton
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