American author (1820-1904)
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.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
When we have the means to pay for what we desire, what we get is not so much what is best, as what is costliest.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Successful minds work like a gimlet--to a single point.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
It is the life of democracy to favor equality.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
It is invidious to distinguish particular men as adventurers: we are all such.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
What a position of transcendent horror must that be, where the perpetrator of a great crime, till then a stranger to positive guilt, finds himself suddenly cut off, and forever, from all human sympathy, isolated from hope, the tenant of a solitary cell, and with a wide, impassable gulf yawning between him and that great brotherhood of which he has ceased to be a part--no longer regarded as a man, but as a monster in the shape of one, from whom Mercy herself turns away, and for whom Pity even has no tears!
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
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.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
It is one of the arts of a great beauty to heighten the effect of her charms by affecting to be sweetly unconscious of them.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
It is indeed a misfortune for a woman to be without beauty, as with men the eye is the chief arbiter of qualities in the sex. Her beauty is her capital--her worth in the market matrimonial depends upon it. With her the Virtues are less reverenced when unaccompanied by the Graces. The sex understand this very well; and hence they seek mainly to make captive the eye, knowing the mind and heart will follow as a matter of course.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
In art there are two principal schools between which each aspirant has to choose--one distinguished by its close adherence to nature, and the other by its strenuous efforts to get above it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
When Fortune frowns upon her worthy wooer, it is still permitted him to think how pleasant it will be erewhile to bask in her smiles.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
We serve the devil in our youth, God in our old age--thinking if we journey towards hell while our limbs are sound, we can turn when they fail us, and get to heaven on crutches.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The more common method of getting rid of an evil, is to merge it in a greater. Thus, if one suffers a loss of half his fortune at play, he overcomes his mortification by--losing the other half. The most ingenious expedient of this kind, was that of the indigent gentleman of rank, who married his washerwoman to get rid of her bill against him.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Give me the character and I will forecast the event.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Very handsome women have usually far less sensibility to compliments than their less beautiful sisters.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The least of the virtues adds to the perfection of the character. It is with the finest characters as it is with the finest woods and marbles--the polishing hand is still needed to bring out the veins of beauty and of grace.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Contentment is not happiness. An oyster may be contented. Happiness is compounded of richer elements.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
What we call conscience, in many instances, is only a wholesome fear of the constable.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
The finest compliment that can be paid to a woman of sense is to address her as such.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought