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Where we cannot invent, we may at least improve we may give somewhat of novelty to that which was old, condensation to that which was diffuse, perspicuity to that which was obscure, and currency to that which was recondite.
Charles Caleb Colton
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Charles Caleb Colton
Died: 1832
Died: January 1
Priest
Writer
Charles Colton
Giving
Obscure
Currency
Improve
Recondite
Improvement
Condensation
Least
Diffuse
Cannot
Novelty
Give
Invent
May
Somewhat
More quotes by Charles Caleb Colton
Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.
Charles Caleb Colton
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.
Charles Caleb Colton
He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool since the most absurd doctrines are not without such evidence as martyrdom can produce. A martyr, therefore, by the mere act of suffering, can prove nothing but his own faith.
Charles Caleb Colton
When certain persons abuse us, let us ask ourselves what description of characters it is that they admire we shall often find this a very consolatory question.
Charles Caleb Colton
The learned languages are indispensable to form the gentleman and the scholar, and are well worth all the labor that they have cost us, provided they are valued not for themselves alone, which would make a pedant, but as a foundation for further acquirements.
Charles Caleb Colton
Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigal of the most precious things.
Charles Caleb Colton
No improvement that takes place in either sex can possibly be confined to itself. Each is a universal mirror to each, and the respective refinement of the one will always be in reciprocal proportion to the polish of the other.
Charles Caleb Colton
Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.
Charles Caleb Colton
Pride, like the magnet, constantly points to one object, self but, unlike the magnet, it has no attractive pole, but at all points repels.
Charles Caleb Colton
A lady of fashion will sooner excuse a freedom flowing from admiration than a slight resulting from indifference.
Charles Caleb Colton
Knavery is supple, and can bend, but honesty is firm and upright and yields not.
Charles Caleb Colton
Wit may do very well for a mistress, but [I] should prefer reason for a wife.
Charles Caleb Colton
Honesty is not only the deepest policy, but the highest wisdom since, however difficult it may be for integrity to get on, it is a thousand times more difficult for knavery to get off and no error is more fatal than that of those who think that Virtue has no other reward because they have heard that she is her own.
Charles Caleb Colton
There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
Charles Caleb Colton
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.
Charles Caleb Colton
The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.
Charles Caleb Colton
The sceptic, when he plunges into the depths of infidelity, like the miser who leaps from the shipwreck, will find that the treasures which he bears about him will only sink him deeper in the abyss.
Charles Caleb Colton
There are two way of establishing a reputation, one to be praised by honest people and the other to be accused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the first one, because it will always be accompanied by the latter.
Charles Caleb Colton
Riches may enable us to confer favors, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.
Charles Caleb Colton
That extremes beget extremes is an apothegm built on the most profound observation of the human mind.
Charles Caleb Colton
