We are more apt to catch the vices of others than their virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.
Charles Caleb Colton born 1780 died 1832 was a famous English author and satirist
A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which was intended for her preservation.
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.
If we trace the history of most revolutions, we shall find that the first inroads upon the laws have been made by the governors, as often as by the governed.
I will not be revenged, and this I owe to my enemy; but I will remember, and this I owe to myself.
Constant success shows us but one side of the world. For as it surrounds us with friends who will tell us only our merits, so it silences those enemies from whom alone we can learn our defects.
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.
An act by which we make one friend and one enemy is a losing game; because revenge is a much stronger principle than gratitude.
We are more inclined to hate one another for points on which we differ, than to love one another for points on which we agree.
Pity a thing often avowed, seldom felt; hatred is a thing often felt, seldom avowed.
Success seems to be that which forms the distinction between confidence and conceit.
We hate some persons because we do not know them; and we will not know them because we hate them.
By paying our other debts, we are equal with all mankind; but in refusing to pay a debt of revenge, we are superior.
Of all the passions, jealousy is that which exacts the hardest service and pays the bitterest wages. Its service is to watch the success of our enemy; its wages, to be sure of it.
Attempts at reform, when they fail, strengthen despotism, as he that struggles tightens those cords he does not succeed in breaking.
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.
There is nothing more non-prudent than excessive prudence.
Pedantry prides herself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right without them.
If you are under obligations to many, it is prudent to postpone the recompensing of one, until it be in your power to remunerate all; otherwise you will make more enemies by what you give, than by what you withhold.
Those who know the least of others think the highest of themselves.
Those who bequeath unto themselves a pompous funeral, are at just so much expense to inform the world of something that had much better be concealed; namely, that their vanity has survived themselves.
There is a paradox in pride; it makes some men ridiculous, but prevents others from becoming so.
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.
For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.
Expect not praise without envy until you are dead.
