Charles Caleb Colton

Charles Caleb Colton – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

: Charles Caleb Colton (c. 1780–1832) was an English cleric, writer, and aphorist best known for his work Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words. This article explores his life, eccentricities, writings, legacy, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Charles Caleb Colton was an English clergyman, writer, and collector whose sharp wit, epigrams, and reflections made Lacon—his collection of aphorisms—very popular in his day. Although now less read, his insights into character, society, and human nature endure through quotations and literary anthologies. His life was marked by brilliance, eccentricity, financial trouble, travel, and ultimately tragedy.

Early Life and Family

Colton was baptized on 11 December 1777 (often given approximately as “c. 1780”) in England.

The environment of clerical upbringing, classical education, and early exposure to institutional life shaped his sensibilities. He was both drawn to intellectual pursuits and prone to more indulgent tastes.

Youth, Education, and Early Clerical Career

After Cambridge, Colton was provided with a perpetual curacy for Prior’s Quarter (Tiverton) in Devon, via his college, in 1801.

Even as a priest, he was known for eccentric behavior, a love of sport (especially fishing and shooting), and unconventional habits.

Literary Work and Writings

Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words

Colton’s most famous and enduring work is Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those Who Think (Vol. I published around 1820, Vol. II in 1822).

In Lacon, Colton draws upon classical, biblical, and literary sources, weaving them into terse, pointed maxims. Many of these lines have been preserved in quotation collections.

Other Works & Writings

Beyond Lacon, Colton wrote:

• A sermon and religious tracts during his early clerical period.

• A Plain and Authentic Narrative of the Sampford Ghost (1810) concerning a ghost story in Devon.

• Hypocrisy: A Satire in Three Books (though he published only the first book) (1812)

• The Conflagration of Moscow (a poem on Napoleon’s invasion), first published around 1816, and later expanded in 1822.

• Remarks, Critical and Moral, on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan (c.1819)

• After his death, a poem called Modern Antiquity and Other Poems (about 600 lines) was published posthumously.

His works reflect both moral seriousness and ironic distance; he often examined the contradictions of human character with wit and a sometimes caustic tone.

Travels, Later Life, and Death

By the late 1820s, Colton’s financial situation had deteriorated. He left the Church of England and departed England in 1828—apparently to evade creditors. United States, during which he wrote and lectured.

He later settled in Paris, where he attempted to maintain an art gallery, collected paintings, dealt in wine, and frequented gaming salons (especially at the Palais-Royal).

In his later years, Colton lived modestly, often supported by funds from relatives. 28 April 1832 in Fontainebleau, France.

Historical Milestones & Context

• Colton’s active years overlapped with the Romantic era in English literature, the later phases of the Napoleonic wars, and the early Victorian transition.

• His style of aphoristic reflection draws on the tradition of moralists like Francis Bacon and Joseph Addison, but with a sharper, more introspective edge.

• The popularity of Lacon in the early 19th century shows how readers of that era valued brief, quotable wisdom to punctuate discourse and daily life.

• His life also exemplifies tensions between clerical duty and personal proclivities, between intellectual aspiration and financial instability, between idealism and indulgence.

Legacy and Influence

• Though Colton is no longer widely read, many of his lines live on in quotation anthologies (such as Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations).

• His influence is felt more in the realm of quotability than sustained literary following: his sharp aphorisms have been mined by editors, speakers, writers, and philosophers.

• Lacon remains a resource for those who study aphoristic literature, moral reflection, and the history of ideas.

• He is often cited as an example of the “eccentric clerk-poet” — someone whose mindset mixes erudition, moral temperament, wit, and personal turbulence.

Personality and Talents

• Wit and Penetration: Colton had a keen eye for paradox, contradiction, hypocrisy, and human foible. His short reflections often cut sharply.

• Intellectual Versatility: He was conversant in literature, classical learning, moral philosophy, and the currents of his time.

• Restless & Indulgent: He pursued pleasures—sport, gambling, wine collecting, art — and sometimes neglected steady duty.

• Eccentricity & Romanticism: His life exhibited a flair for dramatic gestures, unusual behavior, bold enterprises, and personal risks.

• Struggling Integrity: Though admired for moral insight, his life also manifests the struggle between aspiration and human weakness.

Famous Quotes of Charles Caleb Colton

Below are some of Colton’s most enduring and thought-provoking lines, drawn mainly from Lacon and other writings:

1. “When you have nothing to say, say nothing; a weak defense strengthens your opponent, and silence is less injurious than a bad reply.”

2. “True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.”

3. “No company is preferable to bad. We are more apt to catch the vices of others than virtues, as disease is far more contagious than health.”

4. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

5. “The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.”

6. “To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for when we fail, our pride supports; when we succeed; it betrays us.”

7. “Physical courage, which despises all danger, will make a man brave in one way; and moral courage, which despises all opinion, will make a man brave in another.”

8. “Most of our misfortunes are more supportable than the comments of our friends upon them.”

9. “Mental pleasures never cloy: unlike those of the body, they are increased by repetition, approved of by reflection, and strengthened by enjoyment.”

10. “Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.”

Each of these encapsulates Colton’s eye for moral paradox, his appreciation of character over reputation, and his sensitivity to the tensions of human life.

Lessons from Charles Caleb Colton

1. Value brevity and precision
   Colton’s strength lay in distilling complex ideas into concise, memorable form. A single well-chosen phrase can carry immense weight.

2. Observe character, not appearance
   Many of his writings stress that one’s true nature shows in how one acts when unseen, in adversity, or in defeat.

3. Be wary of influence and company
   He warns that bad associations tend to corrupt virtue faster than good ones cultivate it.

4. Silence can be more powerful than speech
   He counsels caution: when words might harm, restraint is better.

5. Introspection over imitation
   Colton believed that earnest reflection and inner discipline are deeper than merely copying admired models.

6. Balance ideals and humanity
   His life shows that moral insight must contend with earthly temptations and frailties—and the tension itself can fuel reflection.

Conclusion

Charles Caleb Colton was a complex and paradoxical figure: a cleric who gambled, a man of deep moral insight who struggled with his own vices, a writer whose words outlived his reputation. Though the man himself is less known today, his sharp aphorisms remain part of the literary and moral conversation. His Lacon continues to offer compressed wisdom for those who think.

May his reflections — in their wit, candor, subtlety, and sometimes sternness — prompt you to slow down, look inward, and choose your words, friends, and actions with care.