Bouvier Quotes & Sayings

Traveling outgrows its motives. It soon proves sufficient in itself. You think you are making a trip, but soon it is making you - or unmaking you. — Nicolas Bouvier

There are two means by which we may be led into the higher forms of prayer. One is Meditation, the other is Meditative Reading. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Wanda Bone Bouvier had that thing that makes a hound leap against its cage. It ws a quality that was partly a bonus from nature and partly learned from cheesecake calendars and Tanya Tucker albums. — Daniel Woodrell

Oh, that we fully understood how very opposite our self-righteousness is to the designs of God! — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

In the end, the bedrock of existence is not made up of the family, or work, or what others say or think of you, but of moments like this when you are exalted by a transcendent power that is more serene than love. Life dispenses them parsimoniously; our feeble hearts could not stand more. — Nicolas Bouvier

A person truly humbled permits not anything to put him in a rage. As it is pride which dies the last in the soul, so it is passion which is last destroyed in the outward conduct. A soul thoroughly dead to itself, finds nothing of rage left. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

To have time for it, I left off prayer which was to me the first inlet of evils. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Some persons, when they hear of the prayer of silence, falsely imagine that the soul remains stupid, dead, and inactive. But unquestionably, it acteth therein more nobly and more extensively than it had ever done before; for God himself is the mover, and the soul now acteth by the agency of His spirit. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Epigraphs from Ballroom Dancing: An Erotic Romance of Dominance and Submission

"He's like my father in a way - loves the chase and is bored with the conquest - and once married, needs proof he's still attractive, so flirts with other women and resents you."
- Jacqueline Bouvier, July, 1952, making an observation about her future husband in a letter to her priest "Father L," the Reverend Joseph Leonard of Dublin, Ireland.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, Mr. President..."
- Norma Jeane Mortenson, May 19, 1962, Madison Square Garden, New York City. — Anna Andreesen

I only mark the hours that shine. — Edith Bouvier Beale

God causes us to promise in time of peace what He exacts from us in time of war; He enables us to make our abandonments in joy, but He requires the fulfilment of them in the midst of much bitterness. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Believe In Yourself! — Monica Bouvier

We must, however, urge it as a matter of the highest import, to cease from self-action and self-exertion, that God himself may act alone: He saith by the mouth of his prophet David: "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). But the creature is so infatuated with a love and attachment to its own workings, that it imagines nothing at all is done if it does not perceive and distinguish all its operations. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Let no one ask a stronger mark of an excellent love to God, than that we are insensible to our own reputation. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

God's designs regarding you, and His methods of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

If while reading, you feel yourself recollected, lay aside the book and remain in stillness; at all times read but little, and cease to read when you're thus internally attracted. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

At home what is 'wonderful' tends to be an exception that's arranged; it is useful, or at least edifying. In Persia it might just as well spring from an oversight, or a sin, or a catastrophe which, by breaking the normal run of events, offers life unexpected scope for unfolding its splendours before eyes that are always ready to rejoice in them. — Nicolas Bouvier

This is the best thing to wear for today, you understand. Because I don't like women in skirts and the best thing is to wear pantyhose or some pants under a short skirt, I think. Then you have the pants under the skirt and then you can pull the stockings up over the pants underneath the skirt. And you can always take off the skirt and use it as a cape. So I think this is the best costume for today. — Edith Bouvier Beale

A journey does not need reasons. Before long, it proves to be reason enough in itself. One thinks that one is going to make a journey, yet soon it is the journey that makes or unmakes you. — Nicolas Bouvier

We must forget ourselves and all self-interest, and listen, and be attentive to God. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

To pastors and teachers
Compose catechisms particularly to teach prayer, not by reasoning nor by method, for the simple are incapable thereof; but to teach the prayer of the heart, not of the understanding; the prayer of God's Spirit, not of man's invention.
Alas! By wanting them to pray in elaborate forms ... you create their chief obstacles. The children have been led astray from the best of fathers, by your endeavouring to teach them too refined, too polished a language ...
A father is much better pleased with an address which love and respect in the child throws into disorder, because he knows it proceeds from the heart, than by a formal and barren harangue, though ever so elaborate in the composition. The simple and undisguised emotions of filial love are infinitely more expressive than all language and all reasoning. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

The more wants we have, the further we are from God, and the nearer we approach him, the better can we dispense with everything that is not Himself. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

We should accept indiscriminately all His dispensations, whether obscurity or illumination, fruitfulness or barrenness, weakness or strength, sweetness or bitterness, temptations, distractions, pain, weariness, or doubtings; and none of all these should, for one moment retard our course. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Compelling read. — Monica Bouvier

Self-seeking is the gate by which a soul departs from peace; and total abandonment to the will of God, that by which it returns. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

My earnest wish is to paint in true colors the goodness of God to me, and the depth of my own ingratitude — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

It is the fire of suffering that brings forth the gold of godliness. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Those who tread these paths should be informed of a matter respecting their confession in which they are apt to err. When they begin to give an account of their sins, instead of the regret and contrition they had been accustomed to feel, they find that love and tranquility sweetly pervade and take possession of their souls: now those who are not properly instructed are desirous of withdrawing from this sensation to form an act of contrition, because they have heard, and with truth, that it is requisite: but they are not aware that they lose thereby the genuine contrition, which is this Intuitive Love, infinitely surpassing any effect produced by self-exertion ... Be not then troubled about other things when God acts so excellently in you and for you. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Oh, my God, if the value of prayer were but known, the great advantage which accrues to the soul from conversing with Thee, and what consequence it is of to salvation, everyone would be assiduous in it. It is a stronghold into which the enemy cannot enter. He may attack it, besiege it, make a noise about its walls; but while we are faithful and hold our station, he cannot hurt us. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

The over-ripe, golden autumn which had taken hold of the town tugged at our heartstrings. The nomadic life makes you sensitive to the seasons: you rely on them, even become part of the season itself, and each time they change, it seems to have to tear yourself away from a place where you have learned to live. — Nicolas Bouvier

It's the worst thing that ever happened to anybody in America! — Edith Bouvier Beale

Surrender yourselves then to be led and disposed of just as God pleases, with respect both to your outward and inward state. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

If knowing answers to life's questions is absolutely necessary to you, then forget the journey. You will never make it. For this is a journey of unknowables
of unanswered questions, enigmas, incomprehensibles, and most of all, things unfair. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

All consolation that does not come from God is but desolation; when the soul has learned to receive no comfort but in God only, it has passed beyond the reach of desolation. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

It is a great truth, wonderful as it is undeniable, that all our happiness temporal, spiritual, and eternal consists in one thing; namely, in resigning ourselves to God, and in leaving ourselves with Him, to do with us and in us just as He pleases. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

I'm pulverized by this latest thing! — Edith Bouvier Beale

The splendid wooden mosque - which you can find if you search - nobody would think of showing you, being less aware of what they have than what they lack. They lack technology: we want to get out of the impasse into which too much technology has led us, our sensibilities saturated to the nth degree with Information and a Culture of distractions. We're counting on their formulae to revive us; they're counting on ours to live. Our paths cross without mutual understanding, and sometimes the traveler gets impatient, but there is a great deal of self-centeredness in such impatience. — Nicolas Bouvier

Prayer is the key of perfection and of sovereign happiness; it is the efficacious means of getting rid of all vices and of acquiring all virtues; for the way to become perfect is to live in the presence of God. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray; and he who will be constant in prayer, shall know what it is to have a pure heart. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

The only way to Heaven is prayer; a prayer of the heart, which every one is capable of, and not of reasonings which are the fruits of study, or exercise of the imagination, which, in filling the mind with wandering objects, rarely settle it; instead of warming the heart with love to God, they leave it cold and languishing. Let the poor come, let the ignorant and carnal come; let the children without reason or knowledge come, let the dull or hard hearts which can retain nothing come to the practice of prayer and they shall become wise. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

In your occupations, try to possess your soul in peace. It is not a good plan to be in haste to perform any action that it may be the sooner over. On the contrary, you should accustom yourself to do whatever you have to do with tranquillity, in order that you may retain the possession of yourself and of settled peace. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

The soul seeks God by faith, not by the reasonings of the mind and labored efforts, but by the drawings of love; to which inclinations God responds, and instructs the soul, which co-operates actively. God then puts the soul in a passive state where He accomplishes all, causing great progress, first by way of enjoyment, then by privation, and finally by pure love. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

The soul should not be surprised at feeling itself unable to offer up to God such petitions as it had formally made with freedom and facility; for now the Spirit maketh intercession for it according to the will of God ("with sighs too deep for words" - Romans 8:26-27). — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Come, ye dull, ignorant, and illiterate, ye who think yourselves the most incapable of prayer! Ye are more peculiarly called and adapted thereto. Let all without exception come, for Jesus Christ hath called all.
Yet let not those come who are without a heart; they are not asked; for there must be a heart, that there may be love. But who is without a heart? Oh come, then, give this heart to God; and here learn how to make the donation. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

We never know how strongly we cling to objects until they are taken away, and he who thinks htat he is attached to nothing, is frequently grandly mistaken, being bound to a thousand things, unknown to himself. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

To rob God of nothing; to refuse Him nothing; to require of Him nothing; this is great perfection. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

O my God, how true it is that we may have of Thy gifts and yet may be full of ourselves! — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Mother wanted me to come out in a kimono, so we had quite a fight. — Edith Bouvier Beale

Whatever truth you have chosen, read only a small portion of it, endeavouring to taste and digest it, to extract the essence and substance thereof, and proceed no farther while any savour or relish remains in the passage: when this subsides, pick up your book again and proceed as before, seldom reading more than half a page at a time, for it is not the quantity that is read, but the manner of reading, that yields us profit. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

He destroys that he might build; for when He is about to rear His sacred temple in us, He first totally razes that vain and pompous edifice, which human art and power had erected, and from its horrible ruins a new structure is formed, by His power only. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

The very discovery of these hidden things is in itself a purifying experience! The soul needs to discover what is inside. The self nature needs to see what it really is, and what it is like-right to the very bottom. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

It is only by a total death to self we can be lost in God. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Wonderfully entertaining. — Monica Bouvier

Traveling provides occasions for shaking oneself up but not, as people believe, freedom. Indeed it involves a kind of reduction: deprived of one's usual setting, the customary routine stripped away like so much wrapping paper, the traveller finds himself reduced to more modest proportions - but also more open to curiosity, to intuition, to love at first sight. — Nicolas Bouvier

That day, I thought that I held something important and that my life would be changed. But nothing of this nature is acquired definitively. Like water, the world traverses you, and for a while, lends you its colours. It then draws back, leaving you once again to face the emptiness that one carries in oneself, to face that central insufficiency of the spirit that one must learn to live with, to fight, and which, paradoxically, is possibly our surest driving force. — Nicolas Bouvier

Beyond a certain degree of hardship or misery, life often revives and heals the scars. As time passed, deportation [to the concentration camps for the young woman] had become a kind of voyage and even, thanks to the almost terrifying capacity of memory to transform horror into courage, a voyage that she could easily mention. Any way of seeing the world is good, as long as one returns. — Nicolas Bouvier

Ah, if you knew what peace there is in an accepted sorrow! — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

The devil is outrageous only against prayer, and those that exercise it; because he knows it is the true means of taking his prey from him. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

I tell you if there's anything worse than dealing with a staunch woman... S-T-A-U-N-C-H. There's nothing worse, I'm telling you. They don't weaken, no matter what. — Edith Bouvier Beale

This spirit gradually decayed, not being nourished by prayer. I became cold toward God. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32). — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

My soul was not only brought into harmony with itself and with God, but with God's providence. In the exercise of faith and love, I endured and performed whatever came in God's providence, in submission, in thankfulness, and silence. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." ~ Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy — Mercedes King

Our activity should consist in placing ourselves in a state of susceptibility to Divine impressions, and pliability to all the operations of the Eternal Word. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

After all, one travels in order for things to happen and change; otherwise you might as well stay at home. — Nicolas Bouvier

Secrets of the incomprehensible wisdom of God, unknown to any besides Himself! Man, sprung up only of a few days, wants to penetrate, and to set bounds to it. Who is it that hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counselor? — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

I wish I were shyly, quietly intriguing, like Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, like someone French and fashionable who knows how to twirl her ladylike locks just so and walk adroitly on kitten heels, who is all gesture and whisper - but I am unfortunately forward and forthright: When I am interested in a man, he absolutely knows it. — Elizabeth Wurtzel

That day, I really believed that I had grasped something and that henceforth my life would be changed. But insights cannot be held for ever. Like water, the world ripples across you and for a while you take on its colours. Then it recedes, and leaves you face to face with the void you carry inside yourself, confronting that central inadequacy of soul which you must learn to rub shoulders with and to combat, and which, paradoxically, may be our surest impetus. — Nicolas Bouvier

This prayer is not mental, but of the heart. It is not a prayer of thought alone, because the mind of man is so limited, that while it is occupied with one thing it cannot be thinking of another. But it is the PRAYER OF THE HEART, which cannot be interrupted by the occupations of the mind. Nothing can interrupt the prayer of the heart but unruly affections; and when once we have tasted of the love of God, it is impossible to find our delight in anything but Himself. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

I don't think there's any point in meeting anybody who doesn't like music. — Edith Bouvier Beale

I have never found any who prayed so well as those who had never been taught how. They who have no master in man, have one in the Holy Spirit. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

As one sees a river pass into the ocean, lose itself in it, its water for a time distinguished from that of the sea, till it gradually becomes transformed into the same sea, and possesses all its qualities; so was my soul lost in God, who communicated to it His qualities, having drawn it out of all that it had of its own. Its life is an inconceivable innocence, not known or comprehended of those who are still shut up in themselves or only live for themselves. — Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

Election of Public Officers. The right to vote is not a natural one but is derived from constitutions and statutes; it is not a privilege protected by the Fourteenth Amendment; — John Bouvier