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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

In death itself there can be nothing terrible, for the act of death annihilates sensation; but there are many roads to death, and some of them justly formidable, even to the bravest.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Brave Death Road Sense Terrible
Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Deep Enjoyment Health Jealous Money
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

Defect Enemy Learning Ourselves Side Success Surround World
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
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

Enough Satisfaction True
Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Book Friendship Goodness
The worst thing that can be said of the most powerful is that they can take your life; but the same can be said of the most weak.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
If merited, no courage can stand against its just indignation.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Anand Thakur
It is doubtful whether mankind are most indebted to those who like Bacon and Butler dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to those who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and give it currency and utility.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Current Doubt Kind Man Utility
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
The head of dullness, unlike the tail of the torpedo, loses nothing of the benumbing and lethargizing influence by reiterated discharges.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Discharge Head Influence Lose
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
We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Fear Human Nature Pretend
He that can enjoy the intimacy of the great, and on no occasion disgust them by familiarity, or disgrace himself by servility, proves that he is as perfect a gentleman by nature as his companions are by rank.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Enjoyment Grace Greatness Himself Intimacy Rank
Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us – never cease to instruct – never cloy.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Book Friendship Instruction Return True
There are prating coxcombs in the world who would rather talk than listen, although Shakespeare himself were the orator, and human nature the theme!
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Himself Human Listening Nature World
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
For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Hate Man Ourselves Sincere Success
The true measure of your character is what you do when nobody’s watching.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Character Measurement True Watch
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
Mystery magnifies danger as the fog the sun.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Dangerous Mystery Sun
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
The victim to too severe a law is considered as a martyr rather than a criminal.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Crime Severe Victim
An Irish man fights before he reasons, a Scotchman reasons before he fights, an Englishman is not particular as to the order of precedence, but will do either to accommodate his customers.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Customer Fight Man Reason
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
Pleasure is to women what the sun is to the flower; if moderately enjoyed, it beautifies, it refreshes, and it improves; if immoderately, it withers, deteriorates and destroys.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Destroy Enjoyment Improvement Pleasure Sun Woman
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

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

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

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