Quotes from Christian Nestell Bovee

Dishonesty is a forsaking of permanent for temporary advantages.

Hope is the best part of our riches.

By his provocations to good-natured merriment, a humorist of the first water contributes as much to the sum of happiness as the gravest philosopher.

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

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

The beauty seen is partly in him who sees it.

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

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

All power is indeed weak compared with that of the thinker. He sits upon the throne of his Empire of Thought, mightier far than they who wield material sceptres.

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

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

Genuine religion is matter of feeling rather than matter of opinion.

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

Ambition, in one respect, is like a singer's voice; pitched at too high a key, it breaks and comes to nothing.

The knowledge beyond all other knowledge is the knowledge how to excuse.

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

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

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

Too much society makes a man frivolous; too little, a savage.

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

Words of praise, indeed, are almost as necessary to warm a child into a genial life as acts of kindness and affection. Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.

To vindicate the sanctity of human life by taking it is an outrage upon reason. The spectacle of a human being dangling at the end of a gallows-rope is a degradation of humanity.

Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great.

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