Men are more readily contented with no intellectual light than with a little; and wherever they have been taught to acquire some knowledge in order to please others, they have most generally gone on to acquire more, to please themselves.
Charles Caleb ColtonIt is an easy and vulgar thing to please the mob, and no very arduous task to astonish them.
Charles Caleb ColtonHe that can please nobody is not so much to be pitied as he that nobody can please.
Charles Caleb ColtonLiving authors, therefore, are usually, bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen--for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well.
Charles Caleb Colton