“If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; If you would know, and not be known, live in a city.”

— Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon (1820), Vol. I; CCCXXXIV

About Charles Caleb Colton

1780 – 1832

English cleric and writer, author of "Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words".

“Marriage is a feast where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner.”

“The wisest man may be wiser to-day than he was yesterday, and to-morrow than he is to-day.”

“That writer does the most, who gives his reader the most knowledge, and takes from him the least time.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

“The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness.”

“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”

“Life consists in the alternate process of learning and unlearning; but it is often wiser to unlearn than to learn.”

“I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth.”