Christian Nestell Bovee

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

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

Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity.

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

The cheerful live longest in years and afterwards in our regards. Cheerfulness is the off shoot of goodness.

Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.

The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.

The body of a sensualist is the coffin of a dead soul.

Few minds wear out; more rust out.

Tomorrow thinks not of the cares of today.

If one is not virtuous he becomes vicious.

The cure for tender sensibilities is to make more of our objects and less of our selves.

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

Earth took her shining station as a star, In Heaven's dark hall, high up the crowd of worlds.

When all else is lost the future still remains.

When all else is lost, the future still remains.

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

Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity.

Kindred weaknesses induce friendships as often as kindred virtues.

The loss of a beloved connection awakens an interest in Heaven before unfelt.

The heart contracts as the pocket expands.

Next to being witty, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit.

We make way for the man who boldly pushes past us.

A mother is the best friend God ever gave.

Our first and last love is self love.

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

Fame - a few words upon a tombstone, and the truth of those not to be depended on.

No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.

Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.

There is great beauty in going through life without anxiety or fear. Half our fears are baseless, and the other half discreditable.

Living with a saint is more grueling than being one.

We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.

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

Hunting is a relic of the barbarism that once thirsted for human blood but is now content with the blood of animals.

The opinions of the misanthropical rest upon this very partial basis, that they adopt the bad faith of a few as evidence of the worthlessness of all.

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.

Truth like the sun, submits to be obscured; but like the sun, only for a time.

As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.

For cowards the road of desertion should be left open they will carry over to the enemy nothing but their fears.

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

The cure for tender sensibilities is to make more of our objects and less of ourselves.

Some dangers are to be courted courted and braved as a coy mistress is to be wooed with all the more vigor as the day makes against us.

The genial optimist who praises much scatters flowers in our way. Grant that he over praises or that he applauds where he might condemn still he makes no mean result the world to appear better than it is. A pleasant illusion is better than a harsh reality.

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

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

Heaven lent you a soul, Earth will lend a grave.

Contentment is not happiness. An oyster may be contented. Happiness is compounded of richer elements.

Pure motives do not insure perfect results.

Tears are Nature's lotion for the eyes. The eyes see better for being washed with them.

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

Tearless grief bleeds inwardly.

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.

Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.

Our first and last love is self-love.

Cheerfulness is an offshoot of goodness and of wisdom.

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

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

The worst deluded are the self-deluded.

Wine is a treacherous friend who you must always be on guard for.

In ambition, as in love, the successful can afford to be indulgent toward their rivals. The prize our own, it is graceful to recognize the merit that vainly aspired to it.

The worst deluded are the self deluded.

Genius makes its observations in short-hand; talent writes them out at length.

Sensitiveness is closely allied to egotism; and excessive sensibility is only another name for morbid self-consciousness. The cure for tender sensibilities is to make more of our objects and less of our selves.

Music is the fourth great material want, first food, then clothes, then shelter, then music.

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 others thoughts.

The very cunning conceal their cunning the indifferently shrewd boast of it.

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

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

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.

The passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways and dangerous only in one, through their excess.

An ambition to excel in petty things obstructs the progress to nobler aims.

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.

He that shrinks from the grave with too great a dread has an invisible fear behind him pushing him into it.

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.

The great artist is a slave to his ideals.

It is ever the invisible that is the object of our profoundest worship. With the lover it is not the seen but the unseen that he muses upon.

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