C. C. Colton Quotes

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.

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.

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.

Life often presents us with a choice of evils, rather than of goods.

Brutes leave ingratitude to man.

Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.

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

Ambition is to the mind what the cap is to the falcon; it blinds us first, and then compels us to tower by reason of our blindness.

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

Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.

We own almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.

Mystery magnifies danger as the fog the sun.

Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false.

Envy is the coward side of Hate, And all her ways are bleak and desolate.

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

The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.

Fear sees a ceiling. Hope sees the stars.

The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.

Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.

The excess of our youth are checks written against our age and they are payable with interest thirty years later.

A fool is often as dangerous to deal with as a knave, and always more incorrigible.

He that openly tells, his friends all that he thinks of them, must expect that they will secretly tell his enemies much that they do not think of him.

Where true religion has prevented one crime, false religions have afforded a pretext for a thousand.

Gold is worshipped in all climates, without a single temple, and by all classes, without a single hypocrite.

The present time has one advantage over every other -- it is our own.

It is much easier to ruin a man of principle than a man of none, for he may be ruined through his scruples. Knavery is supple and can bend; but honesty is firm and upright, and yields not.

We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.

Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.

He that places himself neither higher nor lower than he ought to do exercises the truest humility.

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.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

Expect not praise without envy until you are dead.

Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness when bequeathed by those who, even alive, would part with nothing.

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.

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.

Sloth, if it has prevented many crimes, has also smothered many virtues.

Commerce flourishes by circumstances, precarious, transitory, contingent, almost as the winds and waves that bring it to our shores.

While I'm trying to be a villain, Tyler Posey's just making me break character all the time. It's hilarious.

Patience is the support of weakness; impatience the ruin of strength.

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.

The firmest of friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.

Human foresight often leaves its proudest possessor only a choice of evils.

Ladies of Fashion starve their happiness to feed their vanity, and their love to feed their pride.

Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease.

Pure 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.

Constant success shows us but one side of the world; adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

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

True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.

It is almost as difficult to make a man unlearn his errors as his knowledge.

Afflictions sent by providence melt the constancy of the noble minded, but confirm the obduracy of the vile, as the same furnace that liquefies the gold, hardens the clay Charles Caleb Colton.