Christian Nestell Bovee May Quotations

It is curious to what a degree one may become attached to a fine tree, especially when it is placed where trees are rare.

Economy is for the poor; the rich may dispense with it.

The cause of laziness is physiological; it is an infirmity of the constitution, and its victim is as much to be pitied as a sufferer from any other constitutional infirmity. It is even worse than many other diseases; from them the patient may recover, while this is incurable.

It may almost be held that the hope of commercial gain has done nearly as much for the cause of truth as even the love of truth.

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.

It is our relation to circumstances that determine their influence over us. The same wind that blows one ship into port may blow another off shore.

Something of a person's character may be observed by how they smile. Some never smile they only grin.

Even when we fancy we have grown wiser, it is only, it may be, that new prejudices have displaced old ones.

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

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.

Contentment is not happiness. An oyster may be contented. Happiness is compounded of richer elements.