Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

If I have one wish which is greater than another, it is, if I had the power, to make men do right; to make them stop their swearing, their lying, their deceiving, to stop trying to injure the innocent, and begin to be honest and upright in all their dealings with one another and honor the name of the Deity.

He is only honest who is not discovered.

Sincerity is the norm of Heaven and the law of our nature. China and the West agree on this point, for without sincerity, no human prince could ever found a state, and no earthly teacher could ever establish a religion.

It would be an unspeakable advantage, both to the public and private, if men would consider that great truth, that no man is wise or safe but he that is honest.

We never deceive people to benefit them, for knavery is a compound of wickedness and falsehood.

It is as bad to clip conscience as to clip coin; it is as bad to give a counterfeit statement as a counterfeit bill.

Look at all those American preachers who got caught with their pants down. They say one thing and they are doing another. I try to be more honest about it, both in my thinking and my behavior.

Integrity means always doing what is right and good, regardless of the immediate consequences.

It is always easier to deal in truth and honesty and follow these to their legitimate ends, than it is to construct and adjust a false superstructure upon a false base.

The regular path of virtue is to be pursued without any bend, and from no view to emolument.

It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual.

It is dishonorable to say one thing and think another; how much more dishonorable to write one thing and think another.

Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth. A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice. A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life. I believe the one thing naturally begets the other.

So, I think that's the centerpiece of morality: Don't lie. But to do that, you have to go a step further and find out what the truth is.

The view that honesty is something, and even a virtue, belongs, it is true, to those private opinions which are forbidden in this age of public opinions.

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

Throughout my life, I have always tried to do what is right.

There is no real excellence in all of this world which can be separated from right living.

No lie ever reaches old age.

By a lie, a man... annihilates his dignity as a man.

My pet peeve and my goal in life is to somehow get an adjective for 'integrity' in the dictionary. 'Truthful' doesn't really cover it, or 'genuine.' It should be like 'integritus.'

Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity, than straightforward and simple integrity in another.

Life comes down to honesty and doing what's right. That's what's most important.