If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city.
— Charles Caleb Colton
Times of great calamity and confusion have been productive for the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace. The brightest thunder-bolt is elicited from the darkest storm.
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.
The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.
There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.
Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.
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.
Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console.
The present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own.
The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down.
Wealth after all is a relative thing since he that has little and wants less is richer than he that has much and wants more.
There are two way of establishing a reputation, one to be praised by honest people and the other to be accused by rogues. It is best, however, to secure the first one, because it will always be accompanied by the latter.
He that is good, will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.
Our incomes should be like our shoes; if too small, they will gall and pinch us; but if too large, they will cause us to stumble and to trip.
Life isn't like a book. Life isn't logical or sensible or orderly. Life is a mess most of the time. And theology must be lived in the midst of that mess.
Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.
We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often despise what we really fear.
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.
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.
The firmest of friendships have been formed in mutual adversity, as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.
That writer does the most who gives his reader the most knowledge and takes from him the least time.
Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.
Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.
There are three difficulties in authorship: to write anything worth publishing, to find honest men to publish it, and to find sensible men to read it.
Of present fame think little, and of future less; the praises that we receive after we are buried, like the flowers that are strewed over our grave, may be gratifying to the living, but they are nothing to the dead.
Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never.
Justice to my readers compels me to admit that I write because I have nothing to do; justice to myself induces me to add that I will cease to write the moment I have nothing to say.
Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish.
The two most precious things this side of the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other.
Patience is the support of weakness; impatience the ruin of strength.
Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.
Law and equity are two things which God has joined, but which man has put asunder.
The drafts which true genius draws upon posterity, although they may not always be honored so soon as they are due, are sure to be paid with compound interest in the end.
Contemporaries appreciate the person rather than their merit, posterity will regard the merit rather than the person.
In religion as in politics it so happens that we have less charity for those who believe half our creed, than for those who deny the whole of it.
If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition.
War kills men, and men deplore the loss; but war also crushes bad principles and tyrants, and so saves societies.
Doubt is the vestibule through which all must pass before they can enter into the temple of wisdom.
Mystery is not profoundness.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.
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.
To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.
The mistakes of the fool are known to the world, but not to himself. The mistakes of the wise man are known to himself, but not to the world.
The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.
Men are born with two eyes, but with one tongue, in order that they should see twice as much as they say.
Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase.
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.
We own almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.
Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind.
