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Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.

Charles Caleb Colton

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are three things that never stand still.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Bad Better Goodness Himself Stand Vice Virtue Worst
It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Brief Ourselves Wisdom
None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Money Person Purpose Secret
It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Afford Man Poor
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
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
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
To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Imagination Known Pain Pleasure Power
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
That which we acquire with the most difficulty we retain the longest; as those who have earned a fortune are usually more careful of it than those who have inherited one.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Care Difficult Earn Fortune Inheritance
Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Deep Fools Silence Wisdom
Sometimes the greatest adversities turn out to be the greatest blessings.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Adversity Blessing Greatness Time
Pure truth, like pure gold, has been found unfit for circulation because men have discovered that it is far more convenient to adulterate the truth than to refine themselves.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Adult Convinience Finding Purity Truth
If a cause be good, the most violent attack of its enemies will not injure it so much as an injudicious defence of it by its friends.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Attack Defense Enemy Friendship Goodness Violence
To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Bitter Dare Enemy Live Rare
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
We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Fear Human Nature Pretend
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
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
Human foresight often leaves its proudest possessor only a choice of evils.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Choice Evil Human Leave
That is fine benevolence, finely executed, which, like the Nile, comes from hidden sources.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Execution Fine Hide Source
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
The true measure of your character is what you do when nobody’s watching.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Character Measurement True Watch
Self-denial is often the sacrifice of one sort of self-love for another.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
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
We ask advice but we mean approbation.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
Pedantry prides herself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right without them.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Pride Right Rule Satisfaction Wrong

Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.

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Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.

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Popular Authors

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