Some read to think, these are rare; some to write, these are common; and some read to talk, and these form the great majority.
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.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONSilence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONPure 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 COLTONTrue contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONBed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONExaminations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONIt is curious that some learned dunces, because they can write nonsense in languages that are dead, should despise those that talk sense in languages that are living.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONFalsehood is often rocked by truth, but she soon outgrows her cradle and discards her nurse.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONTyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONThere are three modes of bearing the ills of life; by indifference, which is the most common; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by religion, which is the most effectual.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONWe should not be too niggardly in our praise, for men will do more to support a character than to raise one.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONThe present time has one advantage over every other — it is our own.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONThere 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 COLTONThere are three kinds of praise, that which we yield, that which we lend, and that which we pay. We yield it to the powerful from fear, we lend it to the weak from interest, and we pay it to the deserving from gratitude.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONThere is this difference between happiness and wisdom; he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.
CHARLES CALEB COLTONHonor 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