“Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.”Charles Caleb Colton Vol. I; CCCXXII Lacon (1820)
“It is almost as difficult to make a man unlearn his errors as his knowledge. Mal-information is more hopeless than non-information; for error is always more busy than ignorance. Ignorance is a blank sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one, on which we must first erase. Ignorance is contented to stand still with her back to the truth; but error is more presumptuous, and proceeds in the same direction. Ignorance has no light, but error follows a false one. The consequence is, that error, when she retraces her footsteps, has further to go, before she can arrive at the truth, than ignorance.”Charles Caleb Colton Vol. I; I Lacon (1820)
“Many a man may thank his talent for his rank, but no man has ever been able to return the compliment by thanking his rank for his talent.”Charles Caleb Colton Vol. I; VIII Lacon (1820)
“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.”Charles Caleb Colton Vol. I; XXVI Lacon (1820)