The greatest miracle that the Almighty could perform would be to make a bad man happy, even in heaven; he must unparadise that blessed place to accomplish it. In its primary signification, all vice--that is, all excess--brings its own punishment even here.

Charles Caleb Colton

True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.

Charles Caleb Colton

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Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.

Charles Caleb Colton

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Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past, even while we attempt to define it.

Charles Caleb Colton

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Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more.

Charles Caleb Colton

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

Charles Caleb Colton

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The present time has one advantage over every other -- it is our own.

Charles Caleb Colton

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We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.

Charles Caleb Colton

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To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.

Charles Caleb Colton

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If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill her above the brim with love of herself; all that runs over will be yours.

Charles Caleb Colton

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Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.

Charles Caleb Colton

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Our minds are as different as our faces. We are all traveling to one destination: happiness, but few are going by the same road.

Charles Caleb Colton

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Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

Charles Caleb Colton

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A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.

Charles Caleb Colton

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When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

Charles Caleb Colton

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It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.

Charles Caleb Colton

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It is good to act as if. It is even better to grow to the point where it is no longer an act.

Charles Caleb Colton

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Logic is a large drawer, containing some useful instruments, and many more that are superfluous. A wise man will look into it for two purposes, to avail himself of those instruments that are really useful, and to admire the ingenuity with which those that are not so, are assorted and arranged.

Charles Caleb Colton

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We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is civil war.

Charles Caleb Colton

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As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.

Charles Caleb Colton

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Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.

Charles Caleb Colton

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