American author (1820-1904)
Courage ennobles manhood; cowardice degrades it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Age, that acquaints us with infirmities in ourselves, should make us tender in our reprehension of weakness elsewhere.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The least of the virtues adds to the perfection of the character. It is with the finest characters as it is with the finest woods and marbles--the polishing hand is still needed to bring out the veins of beauty and of grace.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The beauty of a woman transcends all other forms of beauty, as well in the sweetness of its suggestions, as in the fervor of the admiration it awakens. The beauty of a lovely woman is an inspiration, a sweet delirium, a gentle madness. Her looks are love-potions. Heaven itself is never so clearly revealed to us as in the face of a beautiful woman.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Few minds wear out; more rust out.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Discretion is the salt, and fancy the sugar, of life: the one preserves, the other sweetens it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Competition, which is said to be "the life of trade," when pushed too far, is no less the death of it--and of the soul.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
We wince under little pains, but nature in us, through the excitement attendant upon them, braces us to endure with fortitude greater agonies.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
What we call conscience, in many instances, is only a wholesome fear of the constable.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
We should be sure, when we rebuke a want of charity, to do it with charity.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Tomorrow thinks not of the cares of today.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The method of the critic is to balance praises with censure, and thus to do justice to the subject and--his own discrimination.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Perhaps the natural character of a man may be best seen before breakfast. The world is created anew for us every morning, and he is just then reissued, as it were, from the hands of nature, with all his original peculiarities fresh upon him.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature has set none.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Partial culture runs to the ornate; extreme culture to simplicity.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Our courage is greater to dare a visible than an imagined danger. A visible danger rouses our energies to meet or avert it; a fancied peril appalls from its presenting nothing to be resisted. Thus, a panic is, usually, a sudden going over to the enemy of our imagination. All is then lost, for we have not only to fight against that enemy, but our imagination as well.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Excellence in art is largely the result of attention to minutiae, and--prayer.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
We become familiar with the outsides of men, as with the outsides of houses, and think we know them, while we are ignorant of so much that is passing within them.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Unmerited compliments are the keenest reproaches.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Men were created for something better than merely to make money. A close application to business, until a competence is gained, is one of the chief virtues; but to continue in trade long after this result is obtained, is one of the signs, not to be mistaken, of a sordid and ignoble nature.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought