Charles Caleb Colton

Author

1780 – 1832

96

Who was Charles Caleb Colton?

Charles Caleb Colton was an English cleric, writer and collector, well known for his eccentricities.

Colton was educated at Eton and King's College, graduating with a B.A. in 1801 and an M.A. in 1804. In 1801, he was presented by the college with the perpetual curacy of Tiverton's Prior's Quarter in Devon, where he lived for many years. He was appointed to the vicarage of Kew and Petersham in 1812. His performance of church-related functions at both locations was erratic: at times conscientious and brilliant while at other times cursory and indulgent. He left formal church service, and England, in 1828. Contemporaries believed that he had fled from his creditors, who took out a legal "docket" against him, identifying him as a wine-merchant.

For two years Colton traveled throughout the United States. He later established a modest residence in Paris. There he invested in an art gallery and had a large private collection of valuable paintings. Other pastimes included wine collecting and partridge-shooting. He also frequented the gaming salons of the "Palais Royal" and was so successful that in a year or two he acquired the equivalent of 25,000 English pounds. He continued gambling, however, and lost his French fortune. At the time of his death, Colton was living on funds received from his immediate family. An illness required surgery, but Colton dreaded the operation. He eventually killed himself rather than undergo the procedure.

Famous Quotes:

  • There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he who thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.
  • Avarice has ruined more souls than extravagance.
  • Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
  • To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it. The pains of power are real; its pleasures imaginary.
  • Men's arguments often prove nothing but their wishes.
  • 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.
  • Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness, when bequeathed by those who. when alive, would not have contributed.
  • As no roads are so rough as those that have just been mended, so no sinners are so intolerant as those that have just turned saints.
  • The society of dead authors has this advantage over that of the living: they never flatter us to our faces, nor slander us behind our backs, nor intrude upon our privacy, nor quit their shelves until we take them down.
  • Those that are the loudest in their threats are the weakest in their actions.

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Born
1780
England
Also known as
  • C. C. Colton
Education
  • Eton College
Died
1832

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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