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Charles Caleb Colton

Charles Caleb Colton (1780 - 1832), was an English cleric, writer and collector, well known for his eccentricities

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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.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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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.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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We hate some persons because we do not know them and we will not know them because we hate them.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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

– Charles Caleb Colton

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To dare to live alone is the rarest courage since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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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.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Deliberate with caution, but act with decision and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Deliberate with caution, but act with decision; and yield with graciousness, or oppose with firmness.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Friendship often ends in love but love in friendship - never.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Friendship, of itself a holy tie, Is made more sacred by adversity.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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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

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

– Charles Caleb Colton

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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.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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

– Charles Caleb Colton

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If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village If you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; If you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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In America every woman has her set of girl-friends some are cousins, the rest are gained at school. These form a permanent committee who sit on each other's affairs, who 'come out' together, marry and divorce together, and who end as those groups of bustling, heartless well-informed club-women who govern society. Against them the Couple of Ehepaar is helpless and Man in their eyes but a biological interlude.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Love lives on hope, and dies when hope is dead It is a flame which sinks for lack of fuel.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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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.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness, when bequeathed by those who. when alive, would not have contributed.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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

– Charles Caleb Colton

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The greatest friend of Truth is time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion Humility.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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The three great apostles of practical atheism, that make converts without persecuting, and retain them without preaching, are wealth, health, and power.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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There are two modes of establishing our reputation to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the former, because it will invariably be accompanied by the latter.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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There are two modes of establishing our reputation: to be praised by honest men, and to be abused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the former, because it will invariably be accompanied by the latter.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Those that are the loudest in their threats are the weakest in their actions.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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Times of general calamity and confusion create great minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storms.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it for when we fail our pride supports us when we succeed, it betrays us.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for when we fail our pride supports us; when we succeed, it betrays us.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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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.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine but if we defer tasting them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer tasting them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.

– Charles Caleb Colton

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