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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

Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Common Privacy Stock Theory
The more gross the fraud the more glibly will it go down, and the more greedily be swallowed, since folly will always find faith where impostors will find imprudence.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Faith Fraud Greedy Imposter Prudent Swallow
Wit may do very well for a mistress, but I should prefer reason for a wife.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
It is easier to pretend to be what you are not than to hide what you really are; but he that can accomplish both has little to learn in hypocrisy.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Accomplishment Easy Hide Hypocrisy Learning Pretend
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
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
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
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
A house may draw visitors, but it is the possessor alone that can detain them.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past, even while we attempt to define it.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
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
Men of great and shining qualities do not always succeed in life, but the fault lies more often in themselves than in others.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Greatness Life Lying Man Success
Bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
Pride 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 COLTON

Beneath Herself Ignorance Lying Pride Shame
He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he that studies men, will know how things are.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Alone Book Himself Man Study
He that places himself neither higher nor lower than he ought to do exercises the truest humility.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Exercise Humility Low Place True

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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