About Charles Caleb Colton: Charles Caleb Colton was an English cleric, writer and collector, well known for his eccentricities.
To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for when we fail, our pride supports us - when we succeed, it betrays us.
If a horse has four legs, and I'm riding it, I think I can win.
Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.
Did universal charity prevail, earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.
If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.
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.
The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.
Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
We ask advice, but we mean approbation.
Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.
There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.
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.
It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.
We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.
He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
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.
Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.
The present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own.
The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.
