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
mistake character errors
It is only an error in judgment to make a mistake, but it shows infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered
data errors world
To no circumstance is the wide diffusion of error in the world more owing than to our habit of adopting conclusions from insufficiently established data. An indispensable preliminary, then, in every investigation, is to get at facts. Until these are arrived at, every opinion, theory, or system, however ingeniously framed, must necessarily rest upon an uncertain basis.
faith however themselves
They are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers.
influence relation circumstances
It is our relation to circumstances that determines their influence upon us.
next faith-in-god labor
Next to faith in God, is faith in labor.
life sugar fancy
Discretion is the salt, and fancy the sugar of life; the one preserves, the other sweetens it.
running opposites quality
Qualities not regulated run into their opposites. Economy before competence is meanness after it. Therefore economy is for the poor; the rich may dispense with it.
witty self able
The next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to be able to quote another's wit.
yield mistress favors
Fortune, like a coy mistress, loves to yield her favors, though she makes us wrest them from her.
fate hawks resentment
Resentments, carried too far, expose us to a fate analogous to that of the fish-hawk, when he strikes his talons too deep into a fish beyond his capacity to lift, and is carried under and drowned by it.
retirement long doe
It is so natural for us to consider our presence as indispensable in the world, so long as we have much to do in it, that the wisdom of retiring wholly from employments in advanced life may be questioned. Certainly, he who does so is in danger of finding, before long, that he has only given up the occupation to which he has been accustomed, for the new business of calculating the period of his decease.
evil abuse satire
Satire is an abuse of wit. It corrects few evils.
luxury slavery
Better freedom with a crust, than slavery with every luxury.
mean writing thinking
In general, inquiry ceases when we adopt a theory. After that, we overlook whatever makes against it, and see and think, and talk and write, only in its favor. Indeed, when we have a snug, comfortable theory, to which we are much attached, they appear to us as a very mean set of facts that will not square with it.