American author (1820-1904)
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
Kindness: A language which the dumb can speak, and the deaf can understand.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
For every great evil, apparently irremediable, there is reserved, it is probable, somewhere in the design of Providence, an effectual remedy.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The thing most prejudicial to health is to be always thinking of it. It is, indeed, an indispensable requisite to the enjoyment of life and health, that little attention should be paid to little symptoms. One should not think himself dead until he is so.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
There are seasons 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.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Few marry their first loves; fewer ought to. The love of the very young is like the love of children for sweetmeats: they usually outgrow it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The wise build their doctrines--theological and philosophical--upon a basis of probabilities, never upon the foundation of absolute certainty.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Life is indeed either a rich possession or a poor, according as it is made subservient to noble aims or ignoble pleasures.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
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.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
A particular disappointment is seldom more than an excrescence upon the trunk of a general good--a shower that spoils the pleasure party, but refreshes and enriches the earth.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
There would not be so much harm in the giddy following the fashions, if somehow the wise could always set them.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Elements of the heroic exist in almost every individual: it is only the felicitous development of them all in one that is rare.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The ideas of things precede and lead to their creation.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
To cultivate a garden is to walk with God.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
It is not the number of facts he knows, but how much of a fact he is himself, that proves the man.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Perhaps the heroic element in our natures is exhibited to the best advantage, not in going from success to success, and so on through a series of triumphs, but in gathering, on the very field of defeat itself, the materials for renewed efforts, and in proceeding, with no abatement of heart or energy, to form fresh designs upon the very ruins and ashes of blasted hopes. Yes, it is this indomitable persistence in a purpose, continued alike through defeat and success, that makes, more than aught else, the hero.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Home never appears to us so beautiful as when we are remote from it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The use we make of our fortune determines its sufficiency. A little is enough if used wisely, and too much if expended foolishly.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
At the best, sarcasms, bitter irony, scathing wit, are a sort of sword-play of the mind. You pink your adversary and he is forthwith dead: and then you deserve to be hung for it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
It is only an error of judgment to make a mistake, but it argues an infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought