Quotes from Charles Caleb Colton

Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.

Hurry is the mark of a weak mind, dispatch of a strong one.

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

He that openly tells, his friends all that he thinks of them, must expect that they will secretly tell his enemies much that they do not think of him.

Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.

We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is a civil war, and in all such contentions, triumphs are defeats.

Two things, well considered, would prevent many quarrels: first, to have it well ascertained whether we are not disputing about terms, rather than things; and, secondly, to examine whether that on which we differ is worth contending about.

The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.

None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them.

A cool blooded and crafty politician, when he would be thoroughly revenged on his enemy, makes the injuries which have been inflicted, not on himself, but on others, the pretext of his attack. He thus engages the world as a partisan in his quarrel, and dignifies his private hate, by giving it the air of disinterested resentment.

If it be true that men of strong imaginations are usually dogmatists--and I am inclined to think it is so--it ought to follow that men of weak imaginations are the reverse; in which case we should have some compensation for stupidity. But it unfortunately happens that no dogmatist is more obstinate or less open to conviction than a fool.

Human foresight often leaves its proudest possessor only a choice of evils.

Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.

Secrecy is the soul of all great designs.

If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; If you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

Time, the cradle of hope.... Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it: he that has made it his friend will have little to fear from his enemies, but he that has made it his enemy will have little to hope from his friends.

Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.

We often regret we did not do otherwise, when that very otherwise would, in all probability, have done for us.

Vice has more martyrs than virtue; and it often happens that men suffer more to be lost than to be saved

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer

Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues.

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.

He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.

There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.