We know the effects of many things, but the cause of few; experience, therefore, is a surer guide than imagination, and inquiry… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Genius in one grand particular is like life. We know nothing of either but by their effects. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Mystery magnifies danger, as a fog the sun, the hand that warned Belshazzar derived its horrifying effect from the want of a… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Theory is worth but little, unless it can explain its own phenomena, and it must effect this without contradicting itself; therefore, the… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Extemporaneous and oral harangues will always have this advantage over those that are read from a in manuscript: every burst of eloquence… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Eloquence, to produce her full effect, should start from the head of the orator, as Pallas from the brain of Jove, completely… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Perhaps that is nearly the perfection of good writing which is original, but whose truth alone prevents the reader from suspecting that… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Repartee is perfect when it effects its purpose with a double edge. It is the highest order of wit, as it indicates… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
It is a curious paradox that precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity, to those mysterious powers… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
Reform is a good replete with paradox; it is a cathartic which our political quacks, like our medical, recommend to others, but… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share Image
As in the game of billiards, the balls are constantly producing effects from mere chance, which the most skillful player could neither… — 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
A beautiful woman, if poor, should use double circumspection; for her beauty will tempt others, her poverty herself. — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed, but to those who have differed — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share
Metaphysicians have been learning their lessons for the last four thousand years, and it is high time that they should now begin to teach… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share
Faith and works are necessary to our spiritual life as Christians, as soul and body are to our natural life as men; for faith… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share
When all moves equally (says Pascal), nothing seems to move as in a vessel under sail; and when all run by common consent into… — Charles Caleb Colton Copy Share
