843 Quotes by Charles Caleb Colton

"Taking things not as they ought to be, but as they are, I fear it must be allowed that Macchiavelli will always have more disciples than Jesus."

"An act by which we make one friend and one enemy is a losing game; because revenge is a much stronger principle than gratitude"

"Error, when she retraces her steps, has farther to go before she can arrive at truth than ignorance."

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

"There are circumstances of peculiar difficulty and danger, where a mediocrity of talent is the most fatal quantum that a man can possibly possess. Had Charles the First and Louis the Sixteenth been more wise or more weak, more firm or more yielding, in either case they had both of them saved their heads."

"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."

"They that are loudest in their threats are the weakest in the execution of them. It is probable that he who is killed by lightning hears no noise; but the thunder-clap which follows, and which most alarms the ignorant, is the surest proof of their safety."

"Fashion ... has brought every thing into vogue, by turns."

"To diminish envy, let us consider not what others possess, but what they enjoy; mere riches may be the gift of lucky accident or blind chance, but happiness must be the result of prudent preference and rational design; the highest happiness then can have no other foundation than the deepest wisdom; and the happiest fool is only as happy as he knows how to be."

"Few things are more agreeable to self-love than revenge, and yet no cause so effectually restrains us from revenge as self-love. And this paradox naturally suggests another; that the strength of the community is not unfrequently built upon the weakness of those individuals that compose it."