Charles Caleb Quotations

Of all the faculties of the mind, memory is the first that flourishes, the first that dies

No company is preferable to bad, because we are more apt to catch the vices of others than their virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time, which every day produces, and which most men throw away, but which nevertheless will make at the end of it no small deduction for the life of man.

Men, by associating in large masses, as in camps and cities, improve their talents but impair their virtues; and strengthen their minds, but weaken their morals; thus a retrocession in the one, is too often the price they pay for a refinement of the

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

There is a paradox in pride: it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so.

Mystery magnifies danger, as a fog the sun

Pity is a thing often vowed, seldom felt; hatred is a thing often felt, seldom avowed.

Pedantry is the showy display of knowledge which crams our heads with learned lumber and then takes out our brains to make room for it.

Law and equity are two things which God hath joined, but which man has put asunder

Most men know what they hate, few know what they love.

The profoundly wise do not declaim against superficial knowledge in others, as much as the profoundly ignorant.

There are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field than their own hearts in their closet.

We ought not be over anxious to encourage innovation, in case of doubtful improvement, for an old system must ever have two advantages over a new one; it is established and it is understood.

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

We should pray with as much earnestness as those who expect everything from God; we should act with as much energy as those who expect everything from themselves

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

To sentence a man of true genius to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse in a mill

The old ways are the safest and surest ways

All adverse and depressing influences can be overcome, not by fighting, but by rising above them

Emulation looks out for merits, that she may exalt herself by victory; envy spies out blemishes that she may lower another by defeat

If rich, it is easy enough to conceal our wealth but, if poor, it is not quite so easy to conceal our poverty. We shall find it is less difficult to hide a thousand guineas, than one hole in our coat.

No man is wise enough, nor good enough, to be trusted with unlimited power.

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straight forward and simple integrity in another.

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

He that will not permit his wealth to do any good to others while he is living prevents it from doing any good to himself when he is dead; and by an egotism that is suicidal and has a double edge, cuts himself off from the truest pleasure here, and t

The young fancy that their follies are mistaken by the old for happiness; and the old fancy that their gravity is mistaken by the young for wisdom

There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest man really is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

There is this paradox in pride it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so

Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them