Christian Bovee

Music is the fourth great material want of our natures, - first food, then raiment, then shelter, then music.

Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.

The method of the enterprising is to plan with audacity, and execute with vigor; to sketch out the map of possibilities; and then to treat them as probabilities.

A great thought is a great boon, for which God is to be first thanked, then he who is the first to utter it, and then in a lessor, but still in a considerable degree, the man who is the first to quote it to us.

Great warriors, like great earthquakes, are principally remembered for the mischief they have done.

The legitimate aim of criticism is to direct attention to the excellent. The bad will dig its own grave, and the imperfect may safely be left to that final neglect from which no amount of present undeserved popularity can rescue it.

To cultivate a garden is to walk with God.

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

Example has more followers than reason. We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire. A generous habit of thought and action carries with it an incalculable influence.

Galileo called doubt the father of invention; it is certainly the pioneer.