Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONSome read to think, these are rare; some to write, these are common; and some read to talk, and these form the great majority.
More Charles Caleb Colton Quotes
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Our minds are as different as our faces. We are all traveling to one destination: happiness, but few are going by the same road.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON -
Constant success shows us but one side of the world. For as it surrounds us with friends who will tell us only our merits, so it silences those enemies from whom alone we can learn our defects.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON -
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 -
Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
No metaphysician ever felt the deficiency of language so much as the grateful.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON -
Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON -
Cruel men are the greatest lovers of Mercy, avaricious men of generosity, and proud men of humility; that is to say, in other, not in themselves.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON -
True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON -
If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill her above the brim with love of herself; all that runs over will be yours.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON -
The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men are.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON -
Physicians must discover the weaknesses of the human mind, and even condescend to humor them, or they will never be called in to cure the infirmities of the body.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON






