It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends. Charles Caleb Colton More Quotes by Charles Caleb Colton More Quotes From Charles Caleb Colton Pleasure is to women what the sun is to the flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates and destroys. Charles Caleb Colton womenflowersun Women do not transgress the bounds of decorum so often as men; but when they do, they go greater lengths. Charles Caleb Colton decorumlengthwomen Women that are the least bashful are often the most modest. Charles Caleb Colton bashfulmodestwomen In answering an opponent, arrange your ideas, but not your words. Charles Caleb Colton opponentsideas Those who worship gold in a world so corrupt as this we live in have at least one thing to plead in defense of their idolatry--the power of their idol. It is true that, like other idols, it can neither move, see, hear, feel, nor understand; but, unlike other idols, it has often communicated all these powers to those who had them not, and annihilated them in those who had. This idol can boast of two peculiarities; it is worshipped in all climates, without a single temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite. Charles Caleb Colton hypocriteidolsmoving A leveller has long ago been set down as a ridiculous and chimerical being, who, if he could finish his work to-day, would have to begin it again tomorrow. Charles Caleb Colton ridiculouslong-agoequality There is a holy love and a holy rage, and our best virtues never glow so brightly as when our passions are excited in the cause. Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues; and the best of us are better when roused. Charles Caleb Colton passioncausessloth Like the rainbow, peace rests upon the earth, but its arch is lost in heaven. Heaven bathes it in hues of light--it springs up amid tears and clouds--it is a reflection of the eternal sun--it is an assurance of calm--it is the sign of a great covenant between God and man--it is an emanation from the distant orb of immortal light. Charles Caleb Colton reflectionspringpeace Peace is the evening star of the soul, as virtue is its sun, and the two are never far apart. Charles Caleb Colton starspeacetwo Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation. Charles Caleb Colton exaltationpowergiving There are three kinds of power,--wealth, strength, and talent; but as old age always weakens, often destroys, the two latter, the aged are induced to cling with the greater avidity to the former. Charles Caleb Colton poweragetwo A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which was intended for her preservation. Charles Caleb Colton debtstormanchors If once a woman breaks through the barriers of decency, her ease is desperate; and if she goes greater lengths than the men, and leaves the pale of propriety farther behind her, it is because she is aware that all return is prohibited, and by none so strongly as by her own sex. Charles Caleb Colton break-throughmensex Deformity of the heart I call Charles Caleb Colton soulfacesheart We strive as hard to hide our hearts from ourselves as from others, and always with more success; for in deciding upon our own case we are both judge, jury, and executioner, and where sophistry cannot overcome the first, or flattery the second, self-love is always ready to defeat the sentence by bribing the third. Charles Caleb Colton selfheartlove-is Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed than the night can happen before the sun is set. Charles Caleb Colton libertysunnight Doubt is the vestibule of faith. Charles Caleb Colton doubt Dreams ought to produce no conviction whatever on philosophical minds. If we consider how many dreams are dreamt every night, and how many events occur every day, we shall no longer wonder at those accidental coincidences which ignorance mistakes for verifications. Charles Caleb Colton philosophicaldreammistake Metaphysicians have been learning their lessons for the last four thousand years, and it is high time that they should now begin to teach us something. Can any of the tribe inform us why all the operations of the mind are carried on with undiminished strength and activity in dreams, except the judgment, which alone is suspended and dormant? Charles Caleb Colton minddreamyears The acquirements of science maybe termed the armor of the mind. Charles Caleb Colton armormindeducation
