Christian Nestell Bovee Quotes - Page 11

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• It is easier to die bravely than to live so.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Courage, Easier, Dies

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1862). “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought”, p.28

  4 Copy quote

• The legitimate aim of criticism is to direct attention to the excellent. The bad will dig its own grave.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Criticism, Attention, Excellent

  5 Copy quote

• No work deserves to be criticized that has not much in it that deserves to be applauded.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Criticism, Deserve

  5 Copy quote

• The very cunning conceal their cunning; the indifferently shrewd boast of it.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Cunning, Boast

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Errors, Data, World

  4 Copy quote

• We absolve a friend from gratitude when we remind him of a favor.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Gratitude, Favors

  4 Copy quote

• Elements of the heroic exist in almost every individual: it is only the felicitous development of them all in one that is rare.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Hero, Elements, Development

  4 Copy quote

• Perhaps the heroic element in our natures is exhibited to the best advantage, not in going from success to success, and so on through a series of triumphs, but in gathering, on the very field of defeat itself, the materials for renewed efforts, and in proceeding, with no abatement of heart or energy, to form fresh designs upon the very ruins and ashes of blasted hopes. Yes, it is this indomitable persistence in a purpose, continued alike through defeat and success, that makes, more than aught else, the hero.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Hero, Heart, Persistence

  4 Copy quote

• When we get tired of enjoying all the pleasures within our reach, we have still a resource in thinking of others that are not.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Tired, Thinking, Pleasure

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1862). “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought”, p.86

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Done, May, Littles

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1862). “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought”, p.99

  4 Copy quote

• However much of time, labor, or other means it takes to establish a reputation, it frequently happens that it requires nearly as much to maintain it. One who has written a good book, is expected on all occasions to "talk like a book." Or, if one has achieved an act of heroism, he is expected to perform acts of heroism for the edification of all who approach him. There are people who can never believe they see a lion unless they hear him roar.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Believe, Book, Mean

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Fate, Hawks, Resentment

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Thinking, Thrones, Empires

  4 Copy quote

• No single character is ever so great that a nation can afford to form itself upon it. Imitation belittles. This appears in the instance of the Chinese. The Chinese are so many Confucii; in miniature. And so with the Jews. Moses, the lawgiver, is poorly represented by Moses, the old clothesman ; or even by Dives, the hanker.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Character, Chinese, Imitation

  5 Copy quote

• The selection of a subject is to the author what choice of position is to the general,--once skilfully determined, the battle is already half won. Of a few writers it may be said that they are popular in despite of their subjects--but of a great many more it may be observed that they are popular because of them.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Choices, Battle, Half

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1862). “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought”, p.26

  4 Copy quote

• Merit is never so conspicuous as when coupled with an obscure origin, just as the moon never appears so lustrous as when it emerges from a cloud.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Moon, Clouds, Merit

  7 Copy quote

• The best evidence of merit is a cordial recognition of it whenever and wherever it may be found.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Merit, May, Recognition

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1862). “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought”, p.102

  7 Copy quote

• Adhesion to one idea is monomania; to few, slavery.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Ideas, Slavery

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Men, Evil, Action

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1871). “Summaries of Thought”

  12 Copy quote

• Pure motives do not insure perfect results.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Perfect, Results, Motive

  8 Copy quote

• The language of the heart--the language which "comes from the heart" and "goes to the heart"--is always simple, always graceful, and always full of power, but no art of rhetoric can teach it. It is at once the easiest and most difficult language--difficult, since it needs a heart to speak it; easy, because its periods though rounded and full of harmony, are still unstudied.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Art, Simple, Needs

  56 Copy quote

• It is with a company as it is with a punch, everything depends upon the ingredients of which it in composed.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Society, Ingredients, Company

  4 Copy quote

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

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Pushing, Invisible, Graves

  4 Copy quote

• To death we owe our life; the passing of one generation opens a way for another.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Generations, Way, Passing

  4 Copy quote

• Dishonesty is a forsaking of permanent for temporary advantages.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Honesty, Advantage, Permanent

  4 Copy quote

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