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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

Temperate men drink the most, because they drink the longest.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Drink Temperature
We should not be too niggardly in our praise, for men will do more to support a character than to raise one.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Man Oneself Praise Raise Support
Diffidence is the better part of knowledge.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Better Knowledge
The family is the most basic unit of government. As the first community to which a person is attached and the first authority under which a person learns to live, the family establishes society’s most basic values.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Attachment Authority Basic Establishment Family Government Person Value
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
A coxcomb begins by determining that his own profession is the first; and he finishes by deciding that he is the first of profession.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Beginning Decision Determination Himself Professional
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
When you have nothing to say, say nothing.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Silence Word Yourself
Eloquence is the language of nature, and cannot be learned in the schools; but rhetoric is the creature of art, which he who feels least will most excel in.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Creature Excellence Feeling Language Learning School
It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Afford Man Poor
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
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
The awkwardness and embarrassment which all feel on beginning to write, when they themselves are the theme, ought to serve as a hint to author’s that self is a subject they ought very rarely to descant upon.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Awkward Beginning Embarrassment Subject Theme Writing
A 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 COLTON

Empty Himself Man Profound Reserve Suspect
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
Fortune, like other females, prefers a lover to a master, and submits with impatience to control; but he that wooes her with opportunity and importunity will seldom court her in vain.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Female Fortune Herself Impatience Lover Master Opportunity Submit
Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Brave Courage Dangerous Man Opinion
Theories are private property, but truth is common stock.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Common Privacy Stock Theory
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
The true measure of your character is what you do when nobody’s watching.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Character Measurement True Watch
We know the effects of many things, but the cause of few; experience, therefore, is a surer guide than imagination, and inquiry than conjecture.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Effect Experience Guide Imagination
As the gout seems privileged to attack the bodies of the wealthy, so ennui seems to exert a similar prerogative over their minds.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Attack Body Mindset Privilege Wealth
Light, whether it be material or moral, is the best reformer.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Best Light Material Moral
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
The rich are more envied by those who have a little, than by those who have nothing.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Amount Jealous Rich
He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Energy Enough Place Plant Virtue
A power above all human responsibility ought to be above all human attainment.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Attainment Human Power Responsibility

It is good to act as if. It is even better to grow to the point where it is no longer an act.

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It is good to act as if. It is even better to grow to the point where it is no longer an act.

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Popular Authors

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