Christian Nestell Bovee Quotes - Page 3

Life being full of harsh realities, we seek relief from them in a variety of pleasing delusions.

Better freedom with a crust, than slavery with every luxury.

As many suffer from too much as too little.

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

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.

The loveliest faces are to be seen by moonlight, when one sees half with the eye and half with the fancy.

It is so natural for us to consider our presence as indispensable in the world, so long as we have much to do in it, that the wisdom of retiring wholly from employments in advanced life may be questioned. Certainly, he who does so is in danger of finding, before long, that he has only given up the occupation to which he has been accustomed, for the new business of calculating the period of his decease.

How like a railway tunnel is the poor man's life, with the light of childhood at one end, the intermediate gloom, and only the glimmer of a future life at the other extremity!

Examples are few of men ruined by giving.

The most brilliant flashes of wit come from a clouded mind, as lightning leaps only from an obscure firmament.

Difficulties, by bracing the mind to overcome them, assist cheerfulness, as exercise assists digestion.

Common sense, alas in spite of our educational institutions, is a rare commodity.

Whether one talks well depends very much upon whom he has to talk to.

There is probably no hell for authors in the next world - they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this.

Something of a person's character may be observed by how they smile. Some never smile they only grin.

Life is indeed either a rich possession or a poor, according as it is made subservient to noble aims or ignoble pleasures.

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.

There are seaons when our passions have slept so long that we know not whether they still exist in us. So does flax forget that it is combustible when the fire is away from it.

The heart contracts as the pocket expands.

Successful love takes a load off our hearts, and puts it upon our shoulders.

Complaint is. more contemptible than pitiful.

Poverty is only contemptible when it is felt to be so. Doubtless the best way to make our poverty respectable is to seem never to feel it as an evil.

The beauty seen is partly in him who sees it. [a predisposition to notice the beautiful, in everything.]

In one important respect a man is fortunate in being poor. His responsibility to God is so much the less

Next to faith in God, is faith in labor.