Christian Nestell Bovee Quotes

A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Emphatic always, forcible never.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

In art and enterprise, it is the steady, silent work that does the work.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Tranquil pleasures last the longest; we are not fitted to bear the burden of great joys.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

If a thing is difficult, that in itself is a temptation to undertake it. Great difficulties, when not succumbed to, bring out great virtues.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

It is hard to compare two things and be unjust to neither.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Minds, like engines, work differently: some smoothly, and without jar; others racklingly.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

All men are alike in their lower natures: it is in their higher characters that they differ.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The method of the enterprising is to plan with audacity, and to execute with vigor.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Weave all beautiful things into thy thoughts.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Follies are great instructors. We should be thankful for what we learn from them. In good part, even, our past follies are the measure of our present wisdom.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

When we have the means to pay for what we desire, what we get is not so much what is best, as what is costliest. Instead of this, one should endeavor, as far as possible, to have everything the best of its kind; to read the best books, to make choice of the most genial companions, to hear the ablest speakers, to see the finest pictures, to attend the best plays, to hear the sweetest music, to grow the finest fruit, and to cultivate the most beautiful and fragrant flowers. To compass these higher pleasures requires not so much an enlarged expenditure of time, money, or troubl, as a purpose never to put up with an inferior gratification when an enjoyment of a higher strain is equally within the reach.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Fear magnifies the proportions of objects. Perhaps it is upon this principle well-attested accounts of sea-serpents, and other like stories, are to be explained. An acquaintance once asked a noted duellist what the muzzle of a pistol, when pointed at him, looked like. "Why," said he, "It looks as big as the head of a flour-barrel."

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Who talk much of their plans, also, rarely accomplish them. The enthusiasm necessary to carry them forward flows off and disappears at the end of their tongues.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Constant companionship is not enjoyable, any more than constant eating. We sit too long at the table of friendship, when we outsit our appetites for each other's thoughts.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

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, 1862)

It is the privilege of a friend to say of us with propriety what we cannot with delicacy say of ourselves.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Nature has not conferred upon us a responsible existence, without giving us, at the same time, the strength, rightly exerted, to perform its obligations.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Nothing that is not lovable is worth portraying.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

To become the master of his circumstance - to override them, as the stately ship overrides the waves, stormy or smooth, as her obedient element - not overwhelmed and lost in them. This is the aim and effort of every noble nature.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Three things principally determine the quality of a man: the leading object he proposes to himself in life; the manner in which he sets about accomplishing it; and the effect which success or failure has upon him.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The essentials of friendship are mutualities of good-will and kind offices. A partial friendship may spring from benefits conferred or received, but a perfect friendship can only arise out of both. The most perfect friendship I can conceive of, is that which may be supposed to exist between a blind beggar and his dog. They are little to the rest of the world, but everything to each other.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Evils are to be traced to their sources, and struck at there.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

No man is greatly competent to serve the cause of truth, till he has made audacity a part of his mental constitution.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

A book should be luminous, not voluminous; it should be sweet-tempered: it should reflect its author: it should be a cast from his thoughts; a mirror of his feelings; a picture in miniature of his life. It should resemble a tranquil lake, in whose glassy surface the varied wonders of the earth and sky are faithfully imaged.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Formerly, when great fortunes were only made in war, war was a business; but now, when great fortunes are only made by business, business is war.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

A character should be judged by its best performance. It is in this that it attains to its clearest expression; and to this, and beyond this, its aspiration tends.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The words of a man indicates his character.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

It matters not so much that the outer world in which we live is disturbed and agitated, and rocked with contentions, provided only that we can stand, in the midst of its whirl and confusion of events, inwardly composed.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

A community of wisdom and the virtues must precede a community of goods. When these are held in common, lands and chattels will be.

Christian Nestell Bovee(Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Much of the sweetness of being beloved comes from the feeling that we are appreciated.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to quote another's wit.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

We trifle when we assign limits to our desires, since nature hath set none.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Chiefly the good is worth knowing, but only the beautiful is worth studying.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

It is a waste of sweetness for a woman to kiss a woman. Kisses should be sacred to lovers. It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness: it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Higher individuality can only be maintained through superior habits. He who lives like other men, will become like other men.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

When a poor friend comes to me as a man, to talk to me as a man, he is cordially welcome, and our intercourse proceeds at once on the basis of our common manhood; but when he comes to me in his character of poor friend, to talk up to me as his superior, what wonder if I assume airs, and talk down to him as an inferior. He degrades me in degrading himself.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

In the deeper recesses of every heart is a store of hoarded secrets - the cherished accumulations of years... Perfect confidence demands perfect sympathy, and understanding, as well with our past as with out present experience.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Cheerfullness is an offshoot of goodness and of wisdom. We look into a man's face, and see how cheerful it is, and then we know how wise and good he is.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Increase of knowledge is the death of innocence, but it favors the growth of virtue.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

It is much, indeed, if we can drop even one bad habit a year; but this is more than most of us do in a lifetime.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Without imagination a man is but a poor creature. His life is like a night without a moon to gild it.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Life is so various that the most active mind cannot hope to become acquainted with more than a few of its particulars.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The great artist is a slave to his ideals.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Hatreds are the chimneys of the mind, serving to carry off the smoke of its pestilent humors.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Living is battling. Nor would an earnest man have it otherwise.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Our happiness depends chiefly upon the estimate we form of life, and the efforts we make to bring ourselves into harmony with its laws.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

It is not so much in the strength to succeed that we are usually deficient, but in the art of bringing the strength we have to bear where it is most needed, and keeping it there. Successful minds work like a gimplet - to single point.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

We fear to perish utterly at death, and seek a continuance of life beyond it in the thoughts of men.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Family relations are natural relations; the social relations are artifical.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

By thinking too much of the other worlds, we become unfit to live in this.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Home never appears to us so beautiful as when we are remote from it. Chilled by the indifference of the rest of the world - annoyed by the discomforts that attend us among strangers - we long to be once more within the charmed circle where they are unknown.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The pleasantest world to live in is the world of ideas. This is the scholar's, the wit's, the poet's, the artist's, the philosopher's world.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

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 within them.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

They are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Tears are nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed by them.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Many children, many cares; no children, no felicity.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Dull men are to be closely studied. Their qualities, like pearls, lie out of sight, and must be dived for.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

There is a great beauty in going through life fearlessly. Half our fears are baseless - the other half discreditable.

Variant: There is great beauty in going through life without anxiety or fear. Half our fears are baseless, and the other half discreditable.
Christian Nestell Bovee
(Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

To confide too much is to put your lemon into another man's squeezer.

Christian Nestell Bovee

Happiness and unhappiness, again, are more qualities of mind, than incidents of place or position. "Were I in search of the most miserable and the most happy of men," said Dr. Warton, "I would look for them in a cloister."

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Much of the pleasures of life comes from its illusions. As by one these depart, Time kindly puts new ones in their places.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The first step towards greatness is to honest, says a proverb. But the proverb fails to state the case strongly enough. Honesty is not only "the first step towards greatness" - it is greatness itself.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The thing which an active mind most needs is a purpose and a direction worthy of its activity.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

A generous estimate of a friend's nobler qualities should prevent us from giving particular attention to the little foibles that sometimes obscure them.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

He speaks and acts best who speaks and acts up to the highest possibilites of his distinctive character. We do not expect the inferior orders of animals to transcend the limits of their natures: no more should we ask any man of a peculiarly formed character to talk or act like other who is unlike him.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The less of nobleness in its surroundings, the more necessity for an elevated nature to remain loyal to its higher affinities. Thus, purity, in times of corruption, has the double force of protest and example. The darker the night, the more resplendent and cheering the light that shines through it.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Few minds wear out; more rust out.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

One should not think himself dead until he is so.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Without passion there can be no energy of character. Indeed, the passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways, and dangerous only in one -  through their excess.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The most perfect friendship I can conceive of, is that which may be supposed to exist between a blind beggar and his dog. They are little to the rest of the world, but everything to each other.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Tomorrow thinks not of the cares of today.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

The grandest of all laws is the law of progressive development. Under it, in the wide sweep of things, men grow wiser as they grow older, and societies better.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

As far as possible, our habits should be in accordance with, and subordinate to, some plan of life. We have plans for business, and plans of pleasure; plans for tomorrow, and plans for the year; plans indeed for almost everything. Why not, then, a plan for life?

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Courage ennobles manhood; cowardice degrades it.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Courage, again, enlarges, cowardice diminishes, resources. In desperate straits the fears of the timid aggravate the dangers that imperil the brave.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Weakness in the leader is demoralization in the army.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

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, 1862)

Perhaps no man is happy without a delusion of some kind.Delusions, it may be said, are as necessary to our happiness as realities.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

A thorough scoundrel values the confidence you repose in him only so far as it enables him to abuse it.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and insensibly approximate to the characters we most admire.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great. Without it no man is to be feared, and with it none despised.

Christian Nestell Bovee (Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, 1862)

Christian Nestell Bovee Biography

Born: February 22, 1820
Died: 1904

Christian Nevell Bovee was an American author. He is best known for his works, "Thoughts, Feelings and Fancies" and "Intuitions and Summaries of Thought".

Misattributed Quotes
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
Christine Bovee