C. C. Colton Quotes
It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do.
Love is an alliance of friendship and animalism; if the former predominates it is passion exalted and refined; if the latter, gross and sensual.
Mystery magnifies danger, as a fog the sun, the hand that warned Belshazzar derived its horrifying effect from the want of a body.
Slight sorrow for sin is sufficient, provided it at the same time produces amendment.
Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.
It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.
Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.
The martyrs to vice far exceed the martyrs to virtue, both in endurance and in number.
Neutrality is no favorite with Providence, for we are so formed that it is scarcely possible for us to stand neuter in our hearts, although we may deem it prudent to appear so in our actions
There are only two things in which the false professors of all religions have agreed--to persecute all other sects and to plunder their own.
Men of great and shining qualities do not always succeed in life, but the fault lies more often in themselves than in others.
He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.
He that dies a martyr proves that he was not a knave, but by no means that he was not a fool.
As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.
We should not be too niggardly in our praise, for men will do more to support a character than to raise one.
Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.
Of all the marvelous works of God, perhaps the one angels view with the most supreme astonishment, is a proud man.
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.
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.
It 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.
The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men are.
Cheerfulness ought to be the viaticum vitae of their life to the old; age without cheerfulness is a Lapland winter without a sun.
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.
He that gives a portion of his time and talent to the investigation of mathematical truth, will come to all other questions with a decided advantage over his opponents.
Our minds are as different as our faces. We are all traveling to one destination: happiness, but few are going by the same road.
I'd much rather go out having America shocked than having America go, 'Eh, it was his time.'
I have found by experience that they who have spent all their lives in cities, improve their talents but impair their virtues; and strengthen their minds but weaken their morals.
The more gross the fraud the more glibly will it go down, and the more greedily be swallowed, since folly will always find faith where impostors will find imprudence.
On stage I'm basically spiritually feeding all of these people in the audience, and making sure they're encouraged to connect with God.
Criticism is like champagne, nothing more execrable if bad, nothing more excellent if good.
That is fine benevolence, finely executed, which, like the Nile, comes from hidden sources.
Flattery is often a traffic of mutual meanness, where although both parties intend deception, neither are deceived.
Pride is less ashamed of being ignorant, than of being instructed, and she looks too high to find that, which very often lies beneath her.
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.
If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you, fill her above the brim with love of herself; all that runs over will be yours.
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.
He that studies books alone, will know how things ought to be; and he that studies men, will know how things are.
To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.
Despotism can no more exist in a nation until the liberty of the press be destroyed than the night can happen before the sun is set.
No company is preferable to bad. We are more apt to catch the vices of others than virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.
