Some are cursed with the fullness of satiety; and how can they bear the ills of life when its very pleasures fatigue them? Charles Caleb Colton More Quotes by Charles Caleb Colton More Quotes From Charles Caleb Colton Our wealth is often a snare to ourselves, and always a temptation to others. Charles Caleb Colton snares wealth temptation Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error. Charles Caleb Colton errors wisdom believe The next thing to having wisdom ourselves, is to profit by that of others. Charles Caleb Colton profit next wisdom The wise man has his follies, no less than the fool; but it has been said that herein lies the difference--the follies of the fool are known to the world, but hidden from himself; the follies of the wise are known to himself, but hidden from the world. Charles Caleb Colton wisdom wise lying There is no quality of the mind, or of the body, that so instantaneously and irresistibly captivates, as wit. An elegant writer has observed that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife. He that deserts the latter, and gives himself up entirely to the guidance of the former, will certainly fall into many pitfalls and quagmires, like him who walks by flashes of lightning, rather than the steady beams of the sun. Charles Caleb Colton wife giving fall Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root. Charles Caleb Colton style maturity roots The plainest man who pays attention to women, will sometimes succeed as well as the handsomest man who does not. Charles Caleb Colton women doe attention Pleasure is to a woman what the sun is to the flower: if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates, and destroys. But the duties of domestic life, exercised as they must be in retirement, and calling forth all the sensibilities of the female, are perhaps as necessary to the full development of her charms, as the shade and the shower are to the rose, confirming its beauty, and increasing its fragrance. Charles Caleb Colton women flower retirement Words are in this respect like water, that they often take their taste, flavour, and character, from the mouth out of which they proceed, as the water from the channel through which it flows. Charles Caleb Colton mouths character water 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. To acquire it, appears not more difficult than to be dispossessed of it when acquired, since it enables the holder to shift his own errors on dependents, and to take their merits to himself. But the miracle of losing it vanishes, when we reflect that we are as liable to fall as to rise, by the treachery of others; and that to say "I am" is language that has been appropriated exclusively to God! Charles Caleb Colton errors giving fall There are truths which some men despise because they have not examined, and which they will not examine because they despise. Charles Caleb Colton despise truth men Some men of a secluded and studious life, have sent forth from their closet or their cloister, rays of intellectual light that have agitated courts, and revolutionized kingdoms; like the moon, that far removed from the ocean, and shining upon it with a serene and sober light, is the chief cause of all those ebbings and flowings which incessantly disturb that world of waters. Charles Caleb Colton ocean moon men Criticism discloses that which it would fain conceal, but conceals that which it professes to disclose; it is therefore, read by the discerning, not to discover the merits of an author, but the motives of his critic. Charles Caleb Colton merit motive criticism Were the life of man prolonged, he would become such a proficient in villainy, that it would become necessary again to drown or to burn the world. Earth would become an hell; for future rewards when put off to a great distance, would cease to encourage, and future punishments to alarm. Charles Caleb Colton distance men world The integrity that lives only on opinion would starve without it. Charles Caleb Colton opinion integrity It is curious that some learned dunces, because they can write nonsense in languages that are dead, should despise those that talk sense in languages that are living. Charles Caleb Colton nonsense language writing The learned languages are indispensable to form the gentleman and the scholar, and are well worth all the labor that they have cost us, provided they are valued not for themselves alone, which would make a pedant, but as a foundation for further acquirements. Charles Caleb Colton foundation cost gentleman The code of poor laws has at length grown up into a tree, which, like the fabulous Upas, overshadows and poisons the land; unwholesome expedients were the bud, dilemmas and depravities have been the blossom, and danger and despair are the bitter fruit. Charles Caleb Colton land law tree Life is the jailer of the soul in this filthy prison, and its only deliverer is death. Charles Caleb Colton prison soul life Light, whether it be material or moral, is the best reformer; for it prevents those disorders which other remedies sometimes cure, but sometimes confirm. Charles Caleb Colton moral light sometimes
