Quotes from Charles Caleb Colton

An Irish man fights before he reasons, a Scotchman reasons before he fights, an Englishman is not particular as to the order of precedence, but will do either to accommodate his customers.

Man is an embodied paradox, a bundle of contradictions.

It is almost as difficult to make a man unlearn his errors as his knowledge.

Injuries accompanied with insults are never forgiven: all men, on these occasions, are good haters, and lay out their revenge at compound interest.

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

The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men are.

We should not be too niggardly in our praise, for men will do more to support a character than to raise one.

Men of great and shining qualities do not always succeed in life, but the fault lies more often in themselves than in others.

There are many women who have never intrigued, and many men who have never gamed; but those who have done either but once are very extraordinary animals.

A man's profundity may keep him from opening on a first interview, and his caution on a second; but I should suspect his emptiness, if he carried on his reserve to a third.

He that studies only men will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body.

Speaking generally, no man appears great to his contemporaries, for the same reason that no man is great to his servants--both know too much of him.

There are some men who are fortune's favorites, and who, like cats, light forever on their legs.

There are two modes of establishing our reputation; to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues.

The upright, if he suffer calumny to move him, fears the tongue of man more than the eye of God.

Avarice has ruined more men than prodigality, and the blindest thoughtlessness of expenditure has not destroyed so many fortunes as the calculating but insatiable lust of accumulation.

Five thousand years have added no improvement to the hive of the bee, nor to the house of the beaver; but look at the habitations and the achievements of men!

That profound firmness which enabler a man to regard difficulties but as evils to be surmounted, no matter what shape they may assume.

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.

We should have all our communications with men, as in the presence of God; and with God, as in the presence of men.

There is this paradox in pride - it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so.

Any one can give advice, such as it is, but only a wise man knows how to profit by it.

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.

Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.