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We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.

Christian Nestell Bovee

Something of a person’s character may be observed by how they smile. Some never smile they only grin.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Character Observation Person Smile
No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Happiness Kind Man Reality
The nearest approximation to an understanding of life is to feel it–to realize it to the full–to be a profound and inscrutable mystery.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Feeling Life Mystery Understand
Common sense, alas in spite of our educational institutions, is a rare commodity.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Education Institution Rare
The greatest happiness comes from the greatest activity.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Activity Greatness Happiness
We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Fear Ignorance Ourselves
The reveries of the dreamer advance his hopes, but not their realization. One good hour of earnest work is worth them all.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Dreams Himself Hope Realization Worth
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.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Determination Influence Oneself Relationship
Nothing is so fragile as thought in its infancy; an interruption breaks it: nothing is so powerful, even to overturning empires, when it reaches its maturity.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Fragile Himself Interrupt Maturity Powerful Reach
How like a railway tunnel is the poor man’s life, with the light of childhood at one end, the intermediate gloom, and only the glimmer of a future life at the other extremity!
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Childhood Future Life Man Poor
Wit, like poetry, is insusceptible of being constructed upon rules founded merely in reason. Like faith, it exists independent of reason, and sometimes in hostility to it.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Existence Faith Independent Poetry Reason Rule
Words of praise, indeed, are almost as necessary to warm a child into a genial life as acts of kindness and affection. Judicious praise is to children what the sun is to flowers.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Children Flower Life Necessary Praise Sun Warm Word
Life is indeed either a rich possession or a poor, according as it is made subservient to noble aims or ignoble pleasures.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Happiness Life Poor Possession Rich
Wit never appears to greater advantage than when it is successfully exerted to relieve from a dilemma, palliate a deficiency, or cover a retreat.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Dilemma Greatness Intelligence Relieve Smart Success
Difficulties, by bracing the mind to overcome them, assist cheerfulness, as exercise assists digestion.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Cheerful Difficult Digest Mindset
We give our best affections to the beautiful, only our second best to the useful.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Affection Beautiful Best Ourselves