Authors - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Brief Biography
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (August 29, 1809 - October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He is also recognized as an important medical reformer. - Wikipedia
Quotes by Oliver Wendell HolmesBrowse all of these
Quote 1194by Anonymous on 11/01/2011
I don't generally feel anything until noon, then it's time for my nap.
Quote 1273by Anonymous on 11/01/2011
Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force.
Quote 1349by Anonymous on 12/01/2011
The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins.
Quote 1351by Anonymous on 12/01/2011
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
Quote 1357by Anonymous on 12/01/2011
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
Quote 1461by Anonymous on 13/01/2011
Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.
Quote 1486by Anonymous on 14/01/2011
Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse. One comfort we have: Cincinnati sounds worse.
Quote 1571by Anonymous on 14/01/2011
The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live.
Quote 1604by Anonymous on 14/01/2011
Love is the master key which opens the gates of happiness.
Quote 1706by Anonymous on 15/01/2011
I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.
Quote 1816by Anonymous on 16/01/2011
A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.
Quote 2016by Anonymous on 21/01/2011
Death tugs at my ear and says: "Live, I am coming."
Quote 2108by Anonymous on 22/01/2011
You may have genius. The contrary is, of course, probable.
Quote 2352by Anonymous on 28/01/2011
The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.
Quote 2635by Anonymous on 02/02/2011
The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort.
Quote 2920by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
The advice of their elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.
Quote 2944by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.
Quote 2986by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius.
Quote 3003by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children.
Quote 3108by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.
Quote 3135by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.
Quote 3174by Anonymous on 05/02/2011
Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.
Quote 3278by Anonymous on 05/02/2011
It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
Quote 3629by Anonymous on 08/02/2011
Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.
Quote 3634by Anonymous on 08/02/2011
Happiness consists in activity. It is running stream, not a stagnant pool.
Quote 3676by Anonymous on 09/02/2011
Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
Quote 3840by Anonymous on 12/02/2011
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
Quote 3942by Anonymous on 12/02/2011
Greatness is not where we stand but in what direction we are moving.
Quote 3960by Anonymous on 12/02/2011
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract.
Quote 4425by Anonymous on 21/02/2011
If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.
Quote 4517by Anonymous on 22/02/2011
The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power.
Quote 4522by Anonymous on 22/02/2011
We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but sail we must and not drift nor lie at anchor.
Quote 4546by Anonymous on 23/02/2011
Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.
Quote 5323by Anonymous on 19/06/2011
Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.
Quote 5352by Anonymous on 21/06/2011
When I think of talking, it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an inspiration, it wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness, and where will you find this but in a woman?
Quote 6019by Anonymous on 12/09/2011
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
Quote 7681by Anonymous on 17/01/2012
Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
Quote 8920by Anonymous on 05/06/2012
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
Quote 10025by Anonymous on 08/09/2012
I hate facts. I always say the chief end of man is to form general propositions - adding that no general proposition is worth a damn.
Quote 10691by Anonymous on 19/10/2012
Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.
Quote 13038by Anonymous on 14/06/2013
Science is good furniture for one's upper chamber, if there is common sense below.
