Christian Nestell Bovee

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

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

False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.

Genius makes its observations in short-hand; talent writes them out at length.

Tranquil pleasures last the longest; we are not fitted to bear the burden of great joys.

Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.

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

A sound discretion is not so much indicated by never making a mistake as by never repeating it.

Enthusiasm is the inspiration of everything great. Without it no man is to be feared, and with it none despised.

Earth took her shining station as a star, In Heaven's dark hall, high up the crowd of worlds.

Good men have the fewest fears. He has but one great fear who fears to do wrong; he has a thousand who has overcome it.

Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity.

We make way for the man who boldly pushes past us.

Tearless grief bleeds inwardly.

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

Wine is a treacherous friend who you must always be on guard for.

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

A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.

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

In ambition, as in love, the successful can afford to be indulgent toward their rivals. The prize our own, it is graceful to recognize the merit that vainly aspired to it.

The great artist is a slave to his ideals.

It is ever the invisible that is the object of our profoundest worship. With the lover it is not the seen but the unseen that he muses upon.

Heaven lent you a soul, Earth will lend a grave.

We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.

Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.