Character Quotes by Charles Caleb Colton

Villainy that is vigilant will be an overmatch for virtue, if she slumber at her post.

— Charles Caleb Colton

Short as life is, some find it long enough to outlive their characters, their constitutions and their estates.

— Charles Caleb Colton

God is on the side of virtue; for whoever dreads punishment suffers it, and whoever deserves it, dreads it .

— Charles Caleb Colton

We should not be too niggardly in our praise, for men will do more to support a character than to raise one.

— Charles Caleb Colton

The moral cement of all society is virtue; it unites and preserves, while vice separates and destroys.

— Charles Caleb Colton

There are some who write, talk, and think, so much about vice and virtue, that they have no time to practice either…

— Charles Caleb Colton

Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues.

— Charles Caleb Colton

Vice has more martyrs than virtue; and it often happens that men suffer more to be lost than to be saved.

— Charles Caleb Colton

There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly,…

— Charles Caleb Colton

Duke Chartres used to boast that no man could have less real value for character than himself, yet he would gladly give…

— Charles Caleb Colton

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and…

— Charles Caleb Colton

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

When we live habitually with the wicked, we become necessarily either their victim or their disciple; when we associate, on the contrary,…

— Charles Caleb Colton

It was observed of Elizabeth that she was weak herself, but chose wise counsellors; to which it was replied, that to choose…

— Charles Caleb Colton

There is a holy love and a holy rage, and our best virtues never glow so brightly as when our passions are…

— 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…

— Charles Caleb Colton

Natural good is' so intimately connected with moral good, and natural evil with moral evil, that I am as certain as if…

— Charles Caleb Colton

Living authors, therefore, are usually, bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous,…

— Charles Caleb Colton

Very great personages are not likely to form very just estimates either of others or of themselves; their knowledge of themselves is…

— Charles Caleb Colton

As the grand discordant harmony of the celestial bodies may be explained by the simple principles of gravity and impulse, so also…

— Charles Caleb Colton

Those who have resources within themselves, who can dare to live alone, want friends the least, but, at the same time, best…

— Charles Caleb Colton

That politeness which we put on, in order to keep the assuming and the presumptuous at a proper distance will generally succeed.…

— Charles Caleb Colton

It is in the middle classes of society that all the finest feeling, and the most amiable propensities of our nature do…

— Charles Caleb Colton

No company is preferable to bad. We are more apt to catch the vices of others than virtues, as disease is far…

— Charles Caleb Colton

The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue.

— Charles Caleb Colton

The true measure of your character is what you do when nobody's watching.

— Charles Caleb Colton

Sincerely to aspire after virtue, is to gain her; and zealously to labour after her wages, is to receive them.

— Charles Caleb Colton

There is but one pursuit in life which it is in the power of all to follow, and of all to attain.…

— Charles Caleb Colton

In cases of doubtful morality, it is usual to say is there any harm in doing this? This question may sometimes be…

— Charles Caleb Colton

Words are in this respect like water, that they often take their taste, flavour, and character, from the mouth out of which…

— Charles Caleb Colton