Quotes from Charles Caleb Colton

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.

He that thinks himself the wisest is generally the least so.

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.

Love lives on hope, and dies when hope is dead It is a flame which sinks for lack of fuel.

Men are born with two eyes, but only one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.

Men will wrangle for religion write for it fight for it die for it anything but--live for it.

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time, which every day produces, and which most men throw away, but which nevertheless will make at the end of it no small deduction for the life of man.

No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness, when bequeathed by those who. when alive, would not have contributed.

Riches may enable us to confer favours, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.

The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.

The greatest and most amiable privilege which the rich enjoy over the poor is that which they exercise the least--the privilege of making others happy.

The three great apostles of practical atheism, that make converts without persecuting, and retain them without preaching, are wealth, health, and power.

There are two modes of establishing our reputation to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the former, because it will invariably be accompanied by the latter.

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

Times of general calamity and confusion create great minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storms.

To dare to live alone is the rarest courage since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.

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 friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.

We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer tasting them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.

As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.

Women do not transgress the bounds of decorum so often as men; but when they do, they go greater lengths.

Women that are the least bashful are often the most modest.