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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

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

Anand Thakur
Great men, like comets, are eccentric in their courses, and formed to do extensive good by modes unintelligible to vulgar minds.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Course Greatness Intelligence Man Mindset Vulgar
Oppression cannot prosper where none will submit to be enslaved.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Oppression Prosperity Submit
Light, whether it be material or moral, is the best reformer.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Best Light Material Moral
An Irish man fights before he reasons, a Scotchman reasons before he fights, an Englishman is not particular as to the order of precedence, but will do either to accommodate his customers.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Customer Fight Man Reason
Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Deep Fools Silence Wisdom
The art of declamation has been sinking in value from the moment that speakers were foolish enough to publish, and hearers wise enough to read.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Art Fools Hear Moments Publish Reading Sink Talk Value
There are three modes of bearing the ills of life; by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Difference Effect Life Philosophy Religion
Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Deep Enjoyment Health Jealous Money
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

Avoid Better Dangerous Hurricane Shipwreck Storm Wait
A house may draw visitors, but it is the possessor alone that can detain them.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Break Failure Strength Success
No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us. Our integrity is never worth so much as when we have parted with our all to keep it.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Integrity Man Ourselves Price Purchase Virtue
There are three kinds of praise, that which we yield, that which we lend, and that which we pay. We yield it to the powerful from fear, we lend it to the weak from interest, and we pay it to the deserving from gratitude.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Deserve Fear Gratitude Kind Pay Powerful Praise
Some persons will tell you, with an air of the miraculous, that they recovered although they were given over; whereas they might with more reason have said, they recovered because they were given over.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Miracle Person Reason Recover
Our actions must clothe us with an immortality loathsome or glorious.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
If you are under obligations to many, it is prudent to postpone the recompensing of one, until it be in your power to remunerate all; otherwise you will make more enemies by what you give, than by what you withhold.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Enemy Hold Obligation Power
God will excuse our prayers for ourselves whenever we are prevented from them by being occupied in such good works as to entitle us to the prayers of others.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

God Goodness Prayer Prevent Work
Atheism is a system which can communicate neither warmth nor illumination, except from those fagots which your mistaken zeal has lighted up for its destruction.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Atheist Communication Destruction Light Mistake System Warmth Yourself Zeal
When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Silence Word Yourself
The good opinion of our fellow men is the strongest, though not the purest motive to virtue.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Goodness Man Motive Opinion Ourselves Strong Virtue
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

Cheerful Genius Gravity Harm Mistake Science
Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Adversity Photograph Reverse Success World
Sometimes the greatest adversities turn out to be the greatest blessings.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Adversity Blessing Greatness Time
Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Circumstance Commerce Flourish Shore Wave
Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Admire Difficult Fine Writing
Silence is less injurious than a weak reply.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Injurious Reply Silence Weakness

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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