Quotes from 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.

The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.

The hand that unnerved Belshazzar derived its most horrifying influence from the want of a body, and death itself is not formidable in what we do know of it, but in what we do not.

Wealth is a relative thing since those who have little and want less are richer than those who have much but want more.

The only kind office performed for us by our friends of which we never complain is our funeral; and the only thing which we most want, happens to be the only thing we never purchase--our coffin.

Modesty is the richest ornament of a woman ... the want of it is her greatest deformity.

If a book really wants the patronage of a great name, it is a bad book; and if it be a good book, it wants it not.

When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good.

Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purist ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storms.

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

Ennui has made more gamblers than avarice, more drunkards than thirst, and perhaps as many suicides as despair.

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. The former would seem most necessary for the camp; the latter for the council; but to constitute a great man, both are necessary.

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

Never join with your friend when he abuses his horse or his wife unless the one is to be sold, and the other to be buried.

The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.

A windmill is eternally at work to accomplish one end, although it shifts with every variation of the weathercock, and assumes ten different positions in a day.

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

He that will not permit his wealth to do any good for others ... cuts himself off from the truest pleasure here and the highest happiness later.

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

Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.

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

I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities, improve their talents but impair their virtues; and strengthen their minds but weaken their morals.

He that has cut the claws of the lion will not feel quite secure until he has also drawn his teeth.

Mystery is not profoundness.