Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

Whenever we find ourselves more inclined to persecute than to persuade, we may then be certain that our zeal has more of pride in it than of charity.

... whoever believes anything esteems that it is a work of charity to persuade another of it.

There is no one on earth more disgusting and repulsive than he who gives alms. Even as there is no one so miserable as he who accepts them.

We are pleased with one who instantly assents to our opinions, but we love a proselyte.

If I murmur in the least at affliction, if I am in any way uncharitable, if I revenge my own case, if I do anything purely to please myself or omit anything because it is a great denial, if I trust myself, if I take any praise for any good which Christ does by me, or if I am in any way proud, I shall act as my own and not God’s.

To make converts is the natural ambition of everyone.

What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favorable credit-balance in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these 'smug', commonplace neighbors at all.

I will not glory, even in my orthodoxy, for even that can be a snare if I make a god of it... Let us rejoice in Him in all His fullness and in Him alone.

Our very business is to teach the great lesson of self-denial and humility to our people, and how unfit is it then that we should be proud ourselves!

A man is never so proud as when striking an attitude of humility.

Anna, there's something very arrogant about insisting on the right to be right.

Man is emphatically a proselytizing creature.

You can always tell when a man is a great ways from God--he is always talking about himself, how good he is. But the moment he sees God by the eye of faith, he is down on his knees, and, like Job, he cries, "Behold I am vile.

A proud person is so busy looking down on others they cannot humble themselves to look up at God.

Any time you have someone come up and say they love what you do and they get great joy from it is a very humbling experience.

our quarrels with the world are like our quarrels with God: no matter how right we are, we are wrong.

There is a stupid humility that is quite common and when a person is afflicted with it, he is once and for all disqualified for being a disciple of knowledge.

When a man has just been greatly honored and has eaten a little he is the most generous.

In exchange for our humility and willingness to accept the charity of God, we are given a kingdom. And a beggar's kingdom is better than a proud man's delusion.

A shamefaced man makes a bad beggar.

What will it cost [a person] to be a true Christian? It will cost him his self-righteousn ess. He must cast away all pride and high thoughts, and conceit of his own goodness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner, saved only by free grace, and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another.

People who parade their holiness are operating dangerously close to the sin of pride.

Perhaps no sin so easily besets us as a sense of self-satisfied superiority to others.

A confessional passage has probably never been written that didn't stink a little bit of the writer's pride in having given up his pride.

I have found so much joy and so much pride in contributing and being a team member, and then stepping back and watching someone else get the applause. That has been really satisfying in a way that I wouldn't have probably imagined.