Quotes from bovee christian nestell v

Can that which is the greatest virtue in philosophy, Doubt (called "the father of inventions" by Galileo), be in religion what the priests term it, the greatest of sins?

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

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

It is rather a mark of vanity not to dress well. The sloven thinks that nature has done enough for him.

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

All greatness in performance rests upon a basis of details. A knowledge of what is general to a subject may suffice for the merely learned man, but a thorough knowledge of details is necessary to form the adept.

Great designs are not accomplished without enthusiasm of some sort. It is the inspiration of everything great.

A young lady can only look charming at so much per yard. A pretty miss in calico is a lovely woman in silk; and a charming girl in muslin is an angel in satin. At least she thinks so, and who would contradict a lady?

Singularity in dress argues eccentricity of character. A queer cut of the coat represents a crotchet in the brain.

I desire to go through life knowing as little of evil in it as possible. To this end, I sometimes avoid looking too closely into the nature of things, studying them only so far as they seem to be good, and abandoning interest in them as soon as their darker feature begin to appear. The good only deserves a hearty interest.

The rules of etiquette were established mostly by women, are chiefly for the benefit of women, and are mainly suited only to the nature of women; and a too punctilious observance of them by a man, goes to show that over-refinement has nearly unsexed him.

Properly, eccentricity is not so much a component of genius, as it is a consequence of the habits of men of genius. The reputation for genius is usually acquired by severe and protracted intellectual labor. This occasions repeated reactions from an extreme tension to an extreme relaxation of spirits--the transitions expressing themselves in sharp and abrupt impulses.

It is not meet that the strong, free limbs of manhood should be fettered by the silken threads of ceremony.

We wince under little pains, but nature in us, through the excitement attendant upon them, braces us to endure with fortitude greater agonies.

He must put his whole life into his work, who would do it well, and make it potential to influence other lives.

Economy is for the poor; the rich may dispense with it.

Besides the five senses, there is a sixth sense, of equal importance--the sense of duty.

The reveries of the dreamer advance his hopes, but not their realization. One good hour of earnest work is worth them all.

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.

Men, like musical instruments, seem made to be played upon.