Charles Caleb Colton
English cleric and writer, 1780-1832
66 quotes.
Quotes by Charles Caleb Colton
- The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity; as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.
- The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves, and we injure our own cause, in the opinion of the world, when we too passionately and eagerly defend it.
- The road to glory would cease to be arduous if it were trite and trodden; and great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities but to make them.
- The slightest sorrow for sin is sufficient, if it produces amendment; and the greatest is insufficient, if it does not.
- Those who have finished by making all others think with them, have usually been those who began by daring to think for themselves.
- Time,— that black and narrow isthmus between two eternities.
- Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.
- To acquire a few tongues is the task of a few years; but to be eloquent in one is the labour of a life.
- To excel others is a proof of talent; but to know when to conceal that superiority is a greater proof of prudence.
- To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for when we fail, our pride supports us,--when we succeed, it betrays us.
- True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
- True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.
- True goodness is not without that germ of greatness that can bear with patience the mistakes of the ignorant, and the censures of the malignant.
- Virtue without talent is a coat of mail without a sword; it may indeed defend the wearer, but will not enable him to protect his friend.
- We are ruined not by what we really want, but by what we think we do.
- We ask advice, but we mean approbation.
- We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves.
- We should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower; she steals sweets from it, but does not injure it.
- We should not be too niggardly in our praise, for men will do more to support a character than to raise one.
- We should pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God; we should act with as much energy as those who expect everything from themselves.
- Wealth, after all, is a relative thing, since he that has little, and wants less, is richer than he that has much, but wants more.
- Were we as eloquent as angels, we would please some men, some women, and some children much more by listening than by talking.
- When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.
- When the million applaud you, seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; when they censure you, what good.
- When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
- When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak defence strengthens your opponent, and silence is less injurious than a bad reply.