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Wit may do very well for a mistress, but I should prefer reason for a wife.

Charles Caleb Colton

Grant graciously what you cannot refuse safely and conciliate those you cannot conquer.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Conquer Grace Grant Refusal Safety Yourself
It is with nations as with individuals, those who know the least of others think the highest of themselves; for the whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Each Other Family Ignorance Nation Pride
Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Dance Grand Happiness Life Mistress Route
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
A fool is often as dangerous to deal with as a knave, and always more incorrigible.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Dangerous Deal Fools
If you are under obligations to many, it is prudent to postpone the recompensing of one, until it be in your power to remunerate all; otherwise you will make more enemies by what you give, than by what you withhold.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Enemy Hold Obligation Power
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
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
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
The study of mathematics, like the Nile, begins in minuteness but ends in magnificence.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Beginning End Magnificiant Mathematics Study
There is nothing more imprudent than excessive prudence.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Excess Prudent
It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Afford Man Poor
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
There were moments of despondency when Shakespeare thought himself no poet, and Raphael no painter; when the greatest wits have doubted the excellence of their happiest efforts.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Effort Greatness Happiness Moments Paint Thinking
The avarice of the miser may be termed the grand sepulchral of all his other passions, as they successively decay.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Grand Misery Passion Success
The rich are more envied by those who have a little, than by those who have nothing.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Amount Jealous Rich
Falsehood is often rocked by truth, but she soon outgrows her cradle and discards her nurse.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Fake Herself Nurse Rock Truth
A power above all human responsibility ought to be above all human attainment.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Attainment Human Power Responsibility
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
Those that are the loudest in their threats are the weakest in their actions.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Action Loud Threat Weakness
Hope is a prodigal young heir, and experience is his banker.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Experience Himself Hope Prodigy Young
It is easier to pretend to be what you are not than to hide what you really are; but he that can accomplish both has little to learn in hypocrisy.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Accomplishment Easy Hide Hypocrisy Learning Pretend
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

Cruelty Generosity Greatness Humility Lover
Butler compared the tongues of these eternal talkers to race-horses, which go the faster the less weight they carry.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Carry Compare Talk Weight
The true measure of your character is what you do when nobody’s watching.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Character Measurement True Watch
There are two principles of established acceptance in morals; first, that self-interest is the mainspring of all of our actions, and secondly, that utility is the test of their value.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Establishment Principle Test Value
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

Wit may do very well for a mistress, but I should prefer reason for a wife.

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Wit may do very well for a mistress, but I should prefer reason for a wife.

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