black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.

Charles Caleb Colton

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
Words indeed are but the signs and counters of knowledge, and their currency should be strictly regulated by the capital which they represent.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Capital Knowledge Regulation Representation Sign Word
I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities, improve their talents but impair their virtues; and strengthen their minds but weaken their morals.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Experience Finding Improvement Live Moral Talent Weakness
A fool is often as dangerous to deal with as a knave, and always more incorrigible.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Dangerous Deal Fools
Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Doubt Pass Temple Wisdom
That is fine benevolence, finely executed, which, like the Nile, comes from hidden sources.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Execution Fine Hide Source
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
The victim to too severe a law is considered as a martyr rather than a criminal.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Crime Severe Victim
Mystery magnifies danger as the fog the sun.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Dangerous Mystery Sun
Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Food Herself Honor Stability
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
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
Taking 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 COLTON

Allow Discipline Fear Myself
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
There are male as well as female gossips.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Female Gossip Male
Logic and metaphysics make use of more tools than all the rest of the sciences put together, and do the least work.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Logic Science Togetherness Tools Work
He that swells in prosperity will be sure to shrink in adversity.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Adversity Himself Prosperity
There are both dull correctness and piquant carelessness; it is needless to say which will command the most readers and have the most influence.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Care Command Influence Reading
Honor is the most capricious in her rewards. She feeds us with air, and often pulls down our house, to build our monument.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Build Food Home Honor Monument Ourselves Pull Reward
The worst thing that can be said of the most powerful is that they can take your life; but the same can be said of the most weak.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
Cheerfulness ought to be the viaticum vitae of their life to the old; age without cheerfulness is a Lapland winter without a sun.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Cheerful Life Old Sun Winter
He that studies only men will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Body Knowledge Man Soul Study
We are more inclined to hate one another for points on which we differ, than to love one another for points on which we agree.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
It is best, if possible, to deceive no one; for he that begins by deceiving others, will end by deceiving himself.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Beginning Best End Himself Possible
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
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

Admit Justice Moments Myself Reading
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

Act Goodness Growth Point

Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Charles Caleb Colton Quotes