Colton, Charles Caleb

"When you have nothing to say, say nothing."

"The intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves."

"It is an easy and vulgar thing to please the mob, and no very arduous task to astonish them."

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

"No man can purchase his virtue too dear, for it is the only thing whose value must ever increase with the price it has cost us. Our integrity is never worth so much as when we have parted with our all to keep it."

"Ennui has made more gamblers than avarice, more drunkards than thirst, and perhaps as many suicides as despair."

"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 know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who seek it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary."

"The bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late."

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

"Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip."

"It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth."

"The rich are more envied by those who have a little, than by those who have nothing." - Lacon

"Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them." - Lacon

"We ask advice, but we mean approbation." - Lacon

"Habit will reconcile us to everything but change." - Lacon

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

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

"Imitation is the sincerest flattery." - Lacon

"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: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary." - Lacon

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

"Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it." - Lacon

"None are so fond of secrets as those who do not mean to keep them; such persons covet secrets as a spendthrift covets money, for the purpose of circulation." - Lacon

"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." - Lacon