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It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.

Charles Caleb Colton

Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Equity God Join Law
Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Affirmation Fake Knowledge Negative
To cure us of our immoderate love of gain, we should seriously consider how many goods there are that money will not purchase, and these the best; and how many evils there are that money will not remedy, and these the worst.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Cure Goodness Immoderate Remedy Willing Worst
Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Break Failure Strength Success
The true motives of our actions, like the real pipes of an organ, are usually concealed; but the gilded and hollow pretext is pompously placed in the front for show.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Goal Hollow Motive Place Show True
Life isn’t like a book. Life isn’t logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Book Life Logic Mess Midst Time
As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Road Rough Saint
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
Make no enemies; he is insignificant indeed that can do thee no harm.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Enemy Harm Yourself
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
The Grecian’s maxim would indeed be a sweeping clause in Literature; it would reduce many a giant to a pygmy; many a speech to a sentence; and many a folio to a primer.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Literature Sentence Speech Talk
Mystery magnifies danger as the fog the sun.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Dangerous Mystery Sun
As that gallant can best affect a pretended passion for one woman who has no true love for another, so he that has no real esteem for any of the virtues can best assume the appearance of them all.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Affect Appearance Assume Best Woman
Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Conquer Grace Grant Refusal Safety Yourself
The excesses of our youth are drafts upon our old age.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Age Old Youth
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

It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.

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It is the briefest yet wisest maxim which tells us to meddle not.

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