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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others.

– Charles Caleb Colton

In life we shall find many men that are great, and some that are good, but very few men that are both great and good.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Marriage is a feast where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Men’s arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.

– Charles Caleb Colton

If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill her above the brim with love of herself; all that runs over will be yours.

– Charles Caleb Colton

The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other.

– Charles Caleb Colton

There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us – never cease to instruct – never cloy.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Our incomes should be like our shoes; if too small, they will gall and pinch us; but if too large, they will cause us to stumble and to trip.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more.

– Charles Caleb Colton

The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.

– Charles Caleb Colton

We ask advice, but we mean approbation.

– Charles Caleb Colton

War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.

– Charles Caleb Colton

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.

– Charles Caleb Colton

True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling it must increase.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Those that are the loudest in their threats are the weakest in their actions.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship – never.

– Charles Caleb Colton

We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Of present fame think little, and of future less; the praises that we receive after we are buried, like the flowers that are strewed over our grave, may be gratifying to the living, but they are nothing to the dead.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Those who visit foreign nations, but associate only with their own country-men, change their climate, but not their customs. They see new meridians, but the same men; and with heads as empty as their pockets, return home with traveled bodies, but untravelled minds.

– Charles Caleb Colton

Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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