Christian Nestell Bovee
Christian Nestell Bovee
Christian Nestell Boveewas an epigrammatic New York writer. He was born in New York City...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
book eye soul
The lively and mercurial are as open books, with the leaves turned down at the notable passages. Their souls sit at the windows of their eyes, seeing and to be seen.
exercise mind digestion
Difficulties, by bracing the mind to overcome them, assist cheerfulness, as exercise assists digestion.
dishes wit seasoning
Wit is better as a seasoning than as a whole dish by itself.
brother long easy
There is a German proverb which says that Take-it-Easy and Live-Long are brothers.
errors support bases
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.
perfect results motive
Pure motives do not insure perfect results.
men evil action
Motives are better than actions. Men drift into crime. Of evil they do more than they contemplate, and of good they contemplate more than they do.
ideas slavery
Adhesion to one idea is monomania; to few, slavery.
men faces portraits
A man cannot paint portraits till he has seen faces.
passion fire long
There are seaons 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.
passion character fire
It is difficult to say which is the greatest evil--to have too violent passions, or to be wholly devoid of them. Controlled with firmness, guided by discretion, and hallowed by the imagination, the passions are the vivifiers and quickeners of our being. Without passion there can be no energy of character. Indeed, the passions are like fire, useful in a thousand ways, and dangerous only in one--through their excess.
tired thinking pleasure
When we get tired of enjoying all the pleasures within our reach, we have still a resource in thinking of others that are not.
done may littles
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.
sex women heart
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.