Charles Caleb Colton

He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool.

It is not so difficult a task to plant new truths, as to root out old errors; for there is this paradox in men, they run after that which is new, but are prejudiced in favor of that which is old.

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.

Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; anything but - live for it.

In great cities men are more callous both to the happiness and the misery of others . . . for they are constantly in the habit of seeing both extremes.

Naśladownictwo jest najszczerszym komplementem.

Logika jest komodą zawierającą pożyteczne narzędzia i wiele zbędnych.

Roztropność jest nieodłączną towarzyszką mądrości, ale z geniuszem nie nawiązuje nawet przelotnej znajomości.

When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by other men.

If the cause be good, the most violent attack of its enemies will not injure it so much as an injudicious defense of it by its friends.

If you have nothing to say, say nothing.

When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time, which every day produces, and which most men throw away, but which nevertheless will make at the end of it no small deduction for the life of man.

He that thinks himself the wisest is generally the least so.

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are three things that never stand still.

Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.

Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.

How small a portion of our life it is that we really enjoy! In youth we are looking forward to things that are to come; in old age we are looking backward to things that are gone past; in manhood, although we appear to be more occupied in things that are present, yet even that is too often absorbed in vague determinations to be vastly happy on some future day when we have time.

The greatest and most amiable privilege which the rich enjoy over the poor is that which they exercise the least - the privilege of making others happy.

The reason why great men meet with so little pity or attachment in adversity, would seem to be this: the friends of a great man were made by his fortune, his enemies by himself, and revenge is a much more punctual paymaster than gratitude.

Love is an alliance of friendship and animalism; if the former predominates it is passion exalted and refined; if the latter, gross and sensual.

Doubt is the vestibule which all must pass before they can enter the temple of wisdom. When we are in doubt and puzzle out the truth by our own exertions, we have gained something that will stay by us and will serve us again. But if to avoid the trouble of the search we avail ourselves of the superior information of a friend, such knowledge will not remain with us; we have not bought, but borrowed it.

Men are born with two eyes, but only one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.