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

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Christian Nestell Bovee
Age: 83 †
Born: 1820
Born: February 22
Died: 1904
Died: January 18
Poet
New York City
New York
bovee
C. N. Bovee
True
Nearly
Littles
Accomplished
May
Develop
Little
Effect
Hereafter
Might
Seeking
Repose
Done
Possibility
Compared
Much
Effects
Possibilities
Upon
Actual

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Melancholy sees the worst of things, things as they may be, and not as they are. It looks upon a beautiful face, and sees but a grinning skull.
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A good thought is indeed a great boon, for which God is to be first thanked next he who is the first to utter it, and then, in a lesser, but still in a considerable degree, the friend who is the first to quote it to us. Whoever adopts and circulates a just thought, participates in the merit that originated it.
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To cultivate a garden is. . . to go hand in hand with Nature in some of her most beautiful processes, to learn something of her choicest secrets, and to have a more intelligent interest awakened in the beautiful order of her works elsewhere.
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Pleasure and pain spring not so much from the nature of things, as from our manner of considering them. Pleasure, especially, is never an invariable effect of particular circumstances.
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There is nothing, says a correspondent of the New York Times, which the business world discards as unpractical and useless so much as the quiet, thinking scholar. But this is the man who makes revolutions. Politicians are mere puppets in the hands of men of thought.
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No work deserves to be criticized that has not much in it that deserves to be applauded.
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The method of the critic is to balance praises with censure, and thus to do justice to the subject and--his own discrimination.
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We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.
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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.
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Excellence in art is largely the result of attention to minutiae, and--prayer.
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A great destiny needs a generous diet.... What can be expected of a people that live on macaroni!
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The very cunning conceal their cunning the indifferently shrewd boast of it.
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Youth is the season of receptivity, and should be devoted to acquirement and manhood of power--that demands an earnest application. Old age is for revision.
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The scope of an intellect is not to be measured with a tape-string, or a character deciphered from the shape or length of a nose.
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Next to faith in God, is faith in labor.
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Dignity of position adds to dignity of character, as well as to dignity of carriage. Give us a proud position, and we are impelled to act up to it.
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The language denotes the man. A coarse or refined character finds its expression naturally in a coarse or refined phraseology.
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Next to being witty, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit.
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The first step toward greatness is to be honest, says the proverb but the proverb fails to state the case strong enough. Honesty is not only the first step toward greatness, - it is greatness itself.
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Something of a person's character may be observed by how they smile. Some never smile they only grin.
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