With the offspring of genius, the law of parturition is reversed; the throes are in the conception, the pleasure in the birth. — Charles Caleb Colton Birth Copy Share Image
It is an easy and vulgar thing to please the mob, and not a very arduous task to astonish them; but essentially… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
The highest knowledge can be nothing more than the shortest and clearest road to truth; all the rest is pretension, not performance,… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
We are not more ingenious in searching out bad motives for good actions when performed by others, than good motives for bad… — Charles Caleb Colton Action Copy Share Image
That is true beauty which has not only a substance, but a spirit; a beauty that we must intimately know, justly to… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will… — Charles Caleb Colton Best friend Copy Share Image
That theatrical kind of virtue, which requires publicity for its stage, and an applauding world for its audience, could not be depended… — Charles Caleb Colton Audience Copy Share Image
In civil jurisprudence it too often happens that there is so much law, that there is no room for justice, and that… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
There is one passage in the Scriptures to which all the potentates of Europe seem to have given their unanimous assent and… — Charles Caleb Colton Atheism Copy Share Image
To judge by the event is an error all commit: for in every instance courage, if crowned with success, is heroism; if… — Charles Caleb Colton Battle Copy Share Image
If often happens too, both in courts and in cabinets, that there are two things going on together,--a main plot and an… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Two things, well considered, would prevent many quarrels: first, to have it well ascertained whether we are not disputing about terms, rather… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy! In youth we are looking forward to things that… — Charles Caleb Colton Age Copy Share Image
We submit to the society of those that can inform us, but we seek the society of those whom we can inform.… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
As there are none so weak that we may venture to injure them with impunity, so there are none so low that… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
It is curious that we pay statesmen for what they say, not for what they do; and judge of them from what… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Early rising not only gives us more life in the same number of years, but adds, likewise, to their number; and not… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed than the night can happen before… — Charles Caleb Colton Despotism Copy Share Image
Fortune, like other females, prefers a lover to a master, and submits with impatience to control; but he that wooes her with… — Charles Caleb Colton Court Copy Share Image
Shakespeare, Butler and Bacon have rendered it extremely difficult for all who come after them to be sublime, witty or profound. — Charles Caleb Colton Butlers Copy Share Image
Courage is like the diamond,--very brilliant; not changed by fire, capable of high polish, but except for the purpose of cutting hard… — Charles Caleb Colton Body Copy Share Image
The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Great minds had rather deserve contemporaneous applause without obtaining it, than obtain without deserving it. If it follow them it is well,… — Charles Caleb Colton Applause Copy Share Image
He that will often put eternity and the world before him, and who will dare to look steadfastly at both of them,… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
The young fancy that their follies are mistaken by the old for happiness. The old fancy that their gravity is mistaken by… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon… — Charles Caleb Colton Books Copy Share Image
To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the… — Charles Caleb Colton Courage Copy Share Image
If a book really wants the patronage of a great name, it is a bad book; and if it be a good… — Charles Caleb Colton Book Copy Share Image
I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities, improve their talents but impair their virtues;… — Charles Caleb Colton Character Copy Share Image
Fashions smile has given wit to dullness and grace to deformity, and has brought everything into vogue, by turns, but virtue. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Of two evils, it is perhaps less injurious to society, that good doctrine should be accompanied by a bad life, than that… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Discretion has been termed the better part of valour, and it is more certain, that diffidence is the better part of knowledge. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Avarice has ruined more men than prodigality, and the blindest thoughtlessness of expenditure has not destroyed so many fortunes as the calculating… — Charles Caleb Colton Accumulation Copy Share Image
The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise… — Charles Caleb Colton Art Copy Share Image
The science of mathematics performs more than it promises, but the science of metaphysics promises more than it performs. — Charles Caleb Colton Inspirational Copy Share Image
A wise minister would rather preserve peace than gain a victory, because he knows that even the most successful war leaves nations… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
“Wealth... is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much but wants… — Charles Caleb Colton Money Copy Share Image
Emulation looks out for merits, that she may exalt herself by a victory; envy spies out blemishes that she may lower another… — Charles Caleb Colton Defeat Copy Share Image
The further we advance in knowledge, the more simplicity shall we discover in those primary rules that regulate all the apparently endless,… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
