Christian Nestell Bovee Quotes - Page 6

Melancholy sees the worst of things...[rather than the best]

What we call conscience in many instances, is only a wholesome fear of the law.

Good men have the fewest fears. He has but one great fear who fears to do wrong; he has a thousand who has overcome it.

Few minds wear out; more rust out.

Ideas are like matter, infinitely divisible. It is not given to us to get down so to speak to their final atoms, but to their molecular groupings-the way is never ending and the progress infinitely delightful and profitable.

Words, like cannon balls, should go direct to their mark.

Alas, the transports beauty can inspire!

Without death in the world, existence in it would soon become, through over-population, the most frightful of curses.

A woman's love, like lichens upon a rock, will still grow where even charity can find no soil to nurture itself.

Excellence in art is largely the result of attention to minutiae, and--prayer.

Hope is the best part of our riches.

Vanity in an old man is charming. It is a proof of an open, nature. Eighty winters have not frozen him up, or taught him concealments. In a young person it is simply allowable; we do not expect him to be above it.

A mother is the best friend God ever gave.

Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.

Satire is an abuse of wit. It corrects few evils.

Resentments, carried too far, expose us to a fate analogous to that of the fish-hawk, when he strikes his talons too deep into a fish beyond his capacity to lift, and is carried under and drowned by it.

However much of time, labor, or other means it takes to establish a reputation, it frequently happens that it requires nearly as much to maintain it. One who has written a good book, is expected on all occasions to "talk like a book." Or, if one has achieved an act of heroism, he is expected to perform acts of heroism for the edification of all who approach him. There are people who can never believe they see a lion unless they hear him roar.

The questions most furiously discussed are those which have in them a basis of truth, and yet a large admixture of errors. We inconsiderately take hold of, and mistakingly support or oppose them, as either wholly true or wholly false.

We repose too much upon the actual, when we should be seeking to develop the possibilities of our being. It is true of nearly all of us, that what we have done is little compared with what we might have accomplished, or may hereafter effect.

All good writing leaves something unexpressed.

The Breath becomes a stone; the stone, a plant; the plant, an animal; the animal, a man; the man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god.

A man cannot paint portraits till he has seen faces.

Our opinions partake, more or less, of the prejudices of our class, party, or sect. We are all largely pledged, through interest, affection, or passion, to particular classes of opinion, and the strength of efforts to get released from these pledges, is the measure of our advancement.

Youth is the season of receptivity, and should be devoted to acquirement; and manhood of power--that demands an earnest application. Old age is for revision.

Hard workers are usually honest; industry lifts them above temptation.