Villainy that is vigilant will be an overmatch for virtue, if she slumber at her post. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
God is on the side of virtue; for whoever dreads punishment suffers it, and whoever deserves it, dreads it . — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 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 Copy Share Image
Sincerely to aspire after virtue, is to gain her; and zealously to labour after her wages, is to receive them. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
The moral cement of all society is virtue; it unites and preserves, while vice separates and destroys. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
The true measure of your character is what you do when nobody's watching. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Vice has more martyrs than virtue; and it often happens that men suffer more to be lost than to be saved. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Short as life is, some find it long enough to outlive their characters, their constitutions and their estates. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Villainy that is vigilant will be an overmatch for virtue, if she slumber at her post. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
A beautiful woman, if poor, should use double circumspection; for her beauty will tempt others, her poverty herself. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to… — Charles Caleb Colton 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 field, than… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
It is doubtful whether mankind are most indebted to those who like Bacon and Butler dig the gold from the mine of literature, or… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error. Where one has been saved… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Mental pleasures never cloy; unlike those of the body, they are increased by reputation, approved by reflection, and strengthened by enjoyment. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Ignorance lies at the bottom of all human knowledge, and the deeper we penetrate, the nearer we arrive unto it. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Heroism, self-denial, and magnanimity, in all instances where they do not spring from a principle of religion, are but splendid altars on which we… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
We ought not to be over-anxious to encourage innovation in cases of doubtful improvement, for an old system must ever have two advantages over… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed, but to those who have differed — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
