Charles Caleb Colton

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

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

When you have nothing to say, say nothing.

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

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

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

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

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 - Lacon, volume I, no. 183
Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.

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.

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

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 - Lacon, 1820
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.

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
Charles Caleb Colton - Lacon, 1825
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.

Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
Charles Caleb Colton - Lacon, 1825
Riches may enable us to confer favours, but to confer them with propriety and grace requires a something that riches cannot give.

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