Some authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some, in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labor, therefore, to treat with ease of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicuity, of things that are profound.
Charles Caleb ColtonNo man can promise himself even fifty years of life, but any man may, if he please, live in the proportion of fifty years in forty-let him rise early, that he may have the day before him, and let him make the most of the day, by determining to expend it on two sorts of acquaintance only-those by whom something may be got, and those from whom something maybe learned.
Charles Caleb ColtonThere are many that despise half the world; but if there be any that despise the whole of it, it is because the other half despises them.
Charles Caleb ColtonThe intoxication of anger, like that of the grape, shows us to others, but hides us from ourselves.
Charles Caleb ColtonMen spend their lives in anticipations,โin determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time. But the present time has one advantage over every otherโit is our own. Past opportunities are gone, future have not come. We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.
Charles Caleb Colton