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The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other.

Charles Caleb Colton

Butler compared the tongues of these eternal talkers to race-horses, which go the faster the less weight they carry.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Carry Compare Talk Weight
Be real and adjust you strategy according to honest results.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Adjust Honesty Reality Result Strategy
Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Born Eyes Man Oneself Proverb
Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us – never cease to instruct – never cloy.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Book Friendship Instruction Return True
A high degree of intellectual refinement in the female is the surest pledge society can have for the improvement of the male.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Female Improvement Intellectual Male Pledge
None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Fond Safety Secret
When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak defense strengthens your opponent, and silence is less injurious than a bad reply.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Bad Injury Strength Weakness
That is fine benevolence, finely executed, which, like the Nile, comes from hidden sources.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Execution Fine Hide Source
There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly, that utility is the test of their value.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Establishment Principle Test Value
Temperate men drink the most, because they drink the longest.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Drink Temperature
It is with nations as with individuals, those who know the least of others think the highest of themselves; for the whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Each Other Family Ignorance Nation Pride
Make no enemies; he is insignificant indeed that can do thee no harm.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Enemy Harm Yourself
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
Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Flattery Imitation One Liner Sincere
The avarice of the miser may be termed the grand sepulchral of all his other passions, as they successively decay.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Grand Misery Passion Success
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

Road Rough Saint

The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other.

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The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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