Christian Nestell Bovee Book Quotations

Most books fail, not so much from a want of ability in their authors, as from an absence in their productions of a thorough development of their ability.

The worth of a book is a matter of expressed juices.

The lively and mercurial are as open books, with the leaves turned down at the notable passages. Their souls sit at the windows of their eyes, seeing and to be seen.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

Luminous quotations, also, atone, by their interest, for the dulness of an inferior book, and add to the value of a superior work by the variety which they lend to its style and treatment.

Books are embalmed minds.

If it is a distinction to have written a good book, it is also a disgrace to have written a bad one.

However much of time, labor, or other means it takes to establish a reputation, it frequently happens that it requires nearly as much to maintain it. One who has written a good book, is expected on all occasions to "talk like a book." Or, if one has achieved an act of heroism, he is expected to perform acts of heroism for the edification of all who approach him. There are people who can never believe they see a lion unless they hear him roar.