Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. quotes - page 4

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, poet, and essayist, renowned for his wit and literary talent. A leading figure in Boston’s literary circles, he made significant contributions to medicine and literature. He helped popularize the “Breakfast-Table” series and influenced American culture in the 19th century. Here are 104 of his quotes:

Where go the poet's lines? Answer, ye evening tapers! Ye auburn locks, ye golden curls, Speak from your folded papers!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

But Memory blushes at the sneer, And Honor turns with frown defiant, And Freedom, leaning on her spear, Laughs louder than the laughing giant.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Lean, hungry, savage anti-everythings.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

It went to pieces all at once- All at once and nothing first, Just as bubbles do when they burst.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called "facts.” They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I say that conceit is just as natural a thing to human minds as a centre is to a circle. But little-minded people's thoughts move in such small circles that five minutes' conversation gives you an arc long enough to determine their whole curve. An arc in the movement of a large intellect does not sensibly differ from a straight line. Even if it have the third vowel ['I', the first-person pronoun] as its centre, it does not soon betray it. The highest thought, that is, is the most seemingly impersonal; it does not obviously imply any individual centre.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

You can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove anything that you want to prove.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Mark this which I am going to say once for all: If I had not force enough to project a principle full in the face of the half dozen most obvious facts which seem to contradict it, I would think only in single file from this day forward.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Don't ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever were there, they are there still!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Boston State-house is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crow-bar.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

But to radiate the heat of the affections into a clod, which absorbs all that is poured into it, but never warms beneath the sunshine of smiles or the pressure of hand or lip,-this is the great martyrdom of sensitive beings,-most of all in that perpetual auto da fé where young womanhood is the sacrifice.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The men of facts wait their turn in grim silence, with that slight tension about the nostrils which the consciousness of carrying a "settler" in the form of a fact or a revolver gives the individual thus armed.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The hat is the ultimum moriens of "respectability".

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

It is by little things that we know ourselves; a soul would very probably mistake itself for another, when once disembodied, were it not for individual experiences which differ from those of others only in details seemingly trifling.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Why should we be more shy of repeating ourselves than the spring be tired of blossoms or the night of stars?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Little I ask, my wants are few; I only wish a hut of stone, (A very plain brown stone will do,) That I may call my own;- And close at hand is such a one, In yonder street that fronts the sun.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else, - very rarely to those who say to themselves, "Go to, now, let us be a celebrated individual!"

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

If a man has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of his liberty, if he is really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop him. And the temptation is to some natures a very great one. Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves that necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded. In common life we shirk it by forming habits, which take the place of self-determination. In politics party-organization saves us the pains of much thinking before deciding how to cast our vote.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

There isn't a text in the Bible better worth keeping always in mind than that one, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' .

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

We are very shy of asking questions of those who know enough to destroy with one word the hopes we live on.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Nobody talks much that doesn't say unwise things, - things he did not mean to say; as no person plays much without striking a false note sometimes.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.