Charles Caleb Colton

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

“Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purist ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from t...”

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

“Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another. The former would seem most nec...”

“That cowardice is incorrigible which the love of power cannot overcome.”

“Courage is generosity of the highest order, for the brave are prodigal of the most precious things.”

“Human foresight often leaves its proudest possessor only a choice of evils.”

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

“True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander.”

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

“Most of our misfortunes are comments of our friends upon them.”

“A windmill is eternally at work to accomplish one end, although it shifts with every variation of the weathercock, and assumes ten different positions in a day.”

“Happiness ... leads none of us by the same route.”

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

“The man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men.”

“We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed, but to those who have differed.”

“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.”

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

“It is good to act as if. It is even better to grow to the point where it is no longer an act.”

“Times of general calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from t...”