Charles Caleb Colton

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.

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.

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

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.

Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship—never.

Drunkenness is the vice of a good constitution or of a bad memory—of a constitution so treacherously good that it never bends till it breaks; or of a memory that recollects the pleasures of getting intoxicated, but forgets the pains of …

Pedantry crams our heads with learned lumber, and takes out our brains to make room for it.

With the offspring of genius, the law of parturition is reversed; the throes are in the conception, the pleasure in the birth.

A feast is more fatal to love than a fast, and a surfeit than a starvation.

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.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

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

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

To sentence a man of true genius to the drudgery of a school, is to put a race horse in a mill.

Suicide sometimes proceeds from cowardice but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it; since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they are afraid to live.

It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies, seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.

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

Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.

We ask advice, but we mean approbation.

As in literature we shall find many things that are true, and some things that are new, but very few things that are both true and new, so also in life, we shall find many men that are great, and some men that are good, but very few men …

there are truths which some men despise, because they have not examined, and which they will not examine, because they despise.

When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak defense strengthens your opponent, and silence is less injurious than a bad reply.

An elegant writer has observed, that wit may do very well for a mistress, but that he should prefer reason for a wife.

Pedantry prides herself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right, without them.