C. C. Colton Quotes

Pain may be said to follow pleasure as its shadow.

We should have all our communications with men, as in the presence of God; and with God, as in the presence of men.

No disorders have employed so many quacks, as those that have no cure; and no sciences have exercised so many quills, as those that have no certainty.

To be a mere verbal critic is what no man of genius would be if he could; but to be a critic of true taste and feeling is what no man without genius could be if he would.

Precisely in proportion to our own intellectual weakness will be our credulity as to those mysterious powers assumed by others.

That alliance may be said to have a double tie, where the minds are united as well as the body; and the union will have all its strength when both the links are in perfection together.

There is this paradox in pride - it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so.

Speaking generally, no man appears great to his contemporaries, for the same reason that no man is great to his servants--both know too much of him.

There are some men who are fortune's favorites, and who, like cats, light forever on their legs.

Heroism, self-denial, and magnanimity, in all instances where they do not spring from a principle of religion, are but splendid altars on which we sacrifice one kind of self-love to another.

The hand that unnerved Belshazzar derived its most horrifying influence from the want of a body, and death itself is not formidable in what we do know of it, but in what we do not.

We often regret we did not do otherwise, when that very otherwise would, in all probability, have done for us.

Sensibility would be a good portress if she had but one hand; with her right she opens the door to pleasure, but with her left to pain.

All adverse and depressing influences can be overcome, not by fighting, by by rising above them.

We cannot think too highly of our nature, nor too humbly of ourselves.

The most ridiculous of all animals is a proud priest; he cannot use his own tools without cutting his own fingers.

A leveller has long ago been set down as a ridiculous and chimerical being, who, if he could finish his work to-day, would have to begin it again tomorrow.

God is on the side of virtue; for whoever dreads punishment suffers it, and whoever deserves it, dreads it .

Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk and truth the root.

Too high an appreciation of our own talents is the chief cause why experience preaches to us all in vain.

No propagation or multiplication is more rapid that that of evil, unless it be checked; no growth more certain.

Deformity of the heart I call The worst deformity of all; For what is form, or what is face, But the soul's index, or its case?

Death is like thunder in two particulars; we are alarmed, at the sound of it; and it is formidable only from that which preceded it.

Those that know the least of others think the highest of themselves.

In all places, and in all times, those religionists who have believed too much have been more inclined to violence and persecution than those who have believed too little.

When we feel a strong desire to thrust our advice upon others, it is usually because we suspect their weakness; but we ought rather to suspect our own.

Courage is like the diamond,--very brilliant; not changed by fire, capable of high polish, but except for the purpose of cutting hard bodies useless.

Habit will reconcile us to everything but change

Fame is an undertaker that pays but little attention to the living, but bedizens the dead, furnishes out their funerals, and follows them to the grave

The whole family of pride and ignorance are incestuous, and mutually beget each other

In cases of doubtful morality, it is usual to say is there any harm in doing this? This question may sometimes be best answered by asking ourselves another; is there any harm in letting it alone?

Secrecy is the soul of all great designs.

The greatest genius is never so great as when it is chastised and subdued by the highest reason.

Be very slow to believe that you are wiser than all others; it is a fatal but common error.

Our wealth is often a snare to ourselves, and always a temptation to others.

Ignorance lies at the bottom of all human knowledge, and the deeper we penetrate, the nearer we arrive unto it.

Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will ascribe it to sinister and interested motives if they can.

Gaming is the child of avarice, but the parent of prodigality.

By paying our other debts, we are equal with all mankind; but in refusing to pay a debt of revenge, we are superior.

When millions applaud you seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; and when they disapprove you, what good.

Folly disgusts us less by her ignorance than pedantry by her learning.

Riches may enable us to confer favors, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.

Jealousy is sustained as often by pride as by affection.

Some indeed there are who profess to despise all flattery, but even these are nevertheless to be flattered, by being told that they do despise it.

The further we advance in knowledge, the more simplicity shall we discover in those primary rules that regulate all the apparently endless, complicated, and multiform operations of the Godhead.

Five thousand years have added no improvement to the hive of the bee, nor to the house of the beaver; but look at the habitations and the achievements of men!

A lady of fashion will sooner excuse a freedom flowing from admiration than a slight resulting from indifference.

There are two things which ought to teach us to think but meanly of human glory; the very best have had their calumniators, the very worst their panegyrists.

He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.

There is this paradox in fear: he is most likely to inspire it in others who has none himself!