Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Charles Caleb Colton Author

  • Gender: Male
  • Born: 1780
  • Died: 1832

Charles Caleb Colton was an English cleric, writer and collector, well known for his eccentricities.

Colton was educated at Eton and King's College, graduating with a B.A. in 1801 and an M.A. in 1804. In 1801, he was presented by the college with the perpetual curacy of Tiverton's Prior's Quarter in Devon, where he lived for many years. He was appointed to the vicarage of Kew and Petersham in 1812. His performance of church-related functions at both locations was erratic: at times conscientious and brilliant while at other times cursory and indulgent. He left formal church service, and England, in 1828. Contemporaries believed that he had fled from his creditors, who took out a legal "docket" against him, identifying him as a wine-merchant.

For two years Colton traveled throughout the United States. He later established a modest residence in Paris. There he invested in an art gallery and had a large private collection of valuable paintings. Other pastimes included wine collecting and partridge-shooting. He also frequented the gaming salons of the "Palais Royal" and was so successful that in a year or two he acquired the equivalent of 25,000 English pounds.

He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.

That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.

The excess of our youth are checks written against our age and they are payable with interest thirty years later.

We own almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.

In life we shall find many men that are great, and some that are good, but very few men that are both great and good.

War kills men, and men deplore the loss but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.

Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.

Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false.

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

The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing weary.

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

Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.

Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.

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.

Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others.

Marriage is a feast where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner.

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

To be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.

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

Constant success shows us but one side of the world adversity brings out the reverse of the picture.

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

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

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.

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

Patience is the support of weakness impatience the ruin of strength.

Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.

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.

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

The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.