Quotes by Colton, Charles Caleb

"He that will believe only what he can fully comprehend must have a long head or a very short creed."

Colton, Charles Caleb on belief   

"Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost."

Colton, Charles Caleb on bigotry   

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

Colton, Charles Caleb on books - reading
11 fans of this quote   

"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."

Colton, Charles Caleb on books - reading
13 fans of this quote   

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

Colton, Charles Caleb on charity   

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

Colton, Charles Caleb on charity   

"He that thinks he is the happiest man, really is so. But he that thinks he is the wisest, is generally the greatest fool."

Colton, Charles Caleb on thoughts and thinking   

"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."

Colton, Charles Caleb on time   

"Time; that black and narrow isthmus between two eternities."

Colton, Charles Caleb on time   

"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."

Colton, Charles Caleb on tolerance
7 fans of this quote   

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

Colton, Charles Caleb on town and country   

"Theories are private property, but truth is common stock."

Colton, Charles Caleb on truth   

"The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility."

Colton, Charles Caleb on truth   

"It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth."

Colton, Charles Caleb on wealth   

"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."

Colton, Charles Caleb on wealth   

"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."

Colton, Charles Caleb on wisdom
3 fans of this quote   

"To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author."

Colton, Charles Caleb on writers and writing   

"The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down."

Colton, Charles Caleb on writers and writing   

"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."

Colton, Charles Caleb on writers and writing   

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

Colton, Charles Caleb on compliments   

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

Colton, Charles Caleb on conflict
4 fans of this quote   

"Repartee is perfect when it effects its purpose with a double edge. It is the highest order of wit, as it indicates the coolest yet quickest exercise of genius, at a moment when the passions are roused."

Colton, Charles Caleb on conversation   

"Reply to wit with gravity, and to gravity with wit."

Colton, Charles Caleb on conversation   

"Physical courage, which engages all danger, will make a person brave in one way; and moral courage, which defies all opinion, will make a person brave in another."

Colton, Charles Caleb on courage   

"It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck."

Colton, Charles Caleb on anger   

"Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console."

Colton, Charles Caleb on death