To be without sympathy is to be alone in the world--without friends or country, home or kindred. Christian Nestell Bovee More Quotes by Christian Nestell Bovee More Quotes From Christian Nestell Bovee Weakness ineffectually seeks to disguise itself,--like a drunken man trying to show how sober he is. Christian Nestell Bovee weakness trying men Nature has provided for the exigency of privation, by putting the measure of our necessities far below the measure of our wants. Our necessities are to our wants as Falstaff's pennyworth of bread to his any quantity of sack. Christian Nestell Bovee falstaff bread want The highest excellence is seldom attained in more than one vocation. The roads leading to distinction in separate pursuits diverge, and the nearer we approach the one, the farther we recede from the other. Christian Nestell Bovee pursuit distinction excellence Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done. Christian Nestell Bovee warrior greatness earthquakes Fortune, like a coy mistress, loves to yield her favors, though she makes us wrest them from her. Christian Nestell Bovee mistress yield favors The next best thing to being witty one's self, is to be able to be able to quote another's wit. Christian Nestell Bovee able self witty Tis but a short journey across the isthmus of Now. Christian Nestell Bovee journey Even when we fancy we have grown wiser, it is only, it may be, that new prejudices have displaced old ones. Christian Nestell Bovee fancy prejudice may The extent of poverty in the world is much exaggerated. Our sensitiveness makes half our poverty; our fears--anxieties for ills that never happen--a greater part of the other half. Christian Nestell Bovee other-half poverty anxiety How like a railway tunnel is the poor man's life, with the light of childhood at one end, the intermediate gloom, and only the glimmer of a future life at the other extremity! Christian Nestell Bovee tunnels light men The past is the sepulchre of our dead emotions. Christian Nestell Bovee emotion past 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 simple art needs Pure motives do not insure perfect results. Christian Nestell Bovee motive results perfect 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 evil action men Adhesion to one idea is monomania; to few, slavery. Christian Nestell Bovee slavery ideas There is a German proverb which says that Take-it-Easy and Live-Long are brothers. Christian Nestell Bovee brother easy long The opinions of the misanthropical rest upon this very partial basis, that they adopt the bad faith of a few as evidence of the worthlessness of all. Christian Nestell Bovee misanthropy evidence opinion The best evidence of merit is a cordial recognition of it whenever and wherever it may be found. Christian Nestell Bovee recognition merit may 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 merit moon clouds Justice, not the majority, should rule. Christian Nestell Bovee majority should justice
