Charles Caleb Colton Quotes
We are more inclined to hate one another for points on which we differ, than to love one another for points on which we agree. The reason perhaps is this: when we find others that agree with us, we seldom trouble ourselves to confirm that agreement; but when we chance on those who differ from us, we are zealous both to convince and to convert them. Our pride is hurt by the failure, and disappointed pride engenders hatred.
Colton, Charles Caleb. Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820.
Spinoza was one of the most feared intellectuals in human history—feared, that is, by the established power structures. Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
At that time Brown’s Republican Party was dominated by extreme conservatives who tended to attack the character and motivation of anyone who did not agree with them—including members of their own party. Brown however came from a state with a strong Republican tradition of liberalism, which however then had a majority of Democrats as most of the liberal Republicans had been driven out of the party by the Republican extremists. At the time, the Republican party had become so extremist that many thought him disloyal to the part for making this statement. The Tea Party credo then as good people do not support evil and immoral policies and they tended to see almost all policies in moral and ethical terms.
Charles Caleb Colton was an English cleric, writer and collector, well known for his eccentricities.
