He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONHe that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONA 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 COLTONA man’s profundity may keep him from opening on a first interview, and his caution on a second; but I should suspect his emptiness, if he carried on his reserve to a third.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONLiberty 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.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONAs that gallant can best affect a pretended passion for one woman who has no true love for another, so he that has no real esteem for any of the virtues can best assume the appearance of them all.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONPleasure 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 COLTONIf a cause be good, the most violent attack of its enemies will not injure it so much as an injudicious defence of it by its friends.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONTaking things not as they ought to be, but as they are, I fear it must be allowed that Macchiavelli will always have more disciples than Jesus.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONCheerfulness ought to be the viaticum vitae of their life to the old; age without cheerfulness is a Lapland winter without a sun.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONPride is less ashamed of being ignorant, than of being instructed, and she looks too high to find that, which very often lies beneath her.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONIgnorance is a blank sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one, on which we must first erase.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONHe that places himself neither higher nor lower than he ought to do exercises the truest humility.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONIt is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONTrue friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONWomen that are the least bashful are often the most modest.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONMost females will forgive a liberty rather than a slight.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON