Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Quotes - Page 4

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• The man who is always worrying about whether or not his soul would be damned generally has a soul that isn't worth a damn.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Men, Umpires, Worry

  13 Copy quote

• I firmly believe that if the whole material medica, as now used, could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be better for mankind-and all the worse for the fishes.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Funny, Believe, Humor

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (2007). “Medical Essays”, p.203, Reprint Services Corporation

  9 Copy quote

• I would never use a long word, even, where a short one would answer the purpose.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Long, Purpose, Use

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (2007). “Medical Essays”, p.302, Reprint Services Corporation

  10 Copy quote

• Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Funny Inspirational, Wish, Common

  1857-8 The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch.12.

  10 Copy quote

• Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Friendship, Best Friend, Sweet

  'An After-Dinner Poem'

  8 Copy quote

• Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. Good mental machinery ought to break its own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among them suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse their motion. A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Hurt, Men, Mad

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. “The Selected Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.”, Library of Alexandria

  7 Copy quote

• The truth is that the whole system of beliefs which comes in with the story of the fall of man ... is gently falling out of enlightened human intelligence.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Fall, Men, Atheism

  6 Copy quote

• But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Friendship, Sweet, Real Friends

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (2007). “Poems 2”, p.147, Reprint Services Corporation

  19 Copy quote

• What a blessed thing it is, that Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left!

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Blessed, Writing, Criticism

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (2007). “Professor At The Breakfast Table”, p.25, Reprint Services Corporation

  8 Copy quote

• The year is getting to feel rich, for his golden fruits are ripening fast, and he has a large balance in the barns, which are his banks. The members of his family have found out that he is well to do in the world. September is dressing herself in show of dahlias and splendid marigolds and starry zinnias. October, the extravagant sister, has ordered an immense amount of the most gorgeous forest tapestry for her grand reception.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Years, Balance, Golden

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (2007). “Pages From An Old Volume Of Life”, p.162, Reprint Services Corporation

  23 Copy quote

• Our brains are seventy-year clocks. The Angel of Life winds them up once for all, then closes the case, and gives the key into the hand of the Angel of the Resurrection.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Birthday, Angel, Wind

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1873). “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table: Every Man His Own Boswell”, p.214

  9 Copy quote

• A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them: Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Music, Death, Winning

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1859). “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table ...”, p.355

  7 Copy quote

• For nothing burns with such amazing speed, As the dry sticks of a religious creed.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Religious, Dry, Sticks

  6 Copy quote

• Every event that a man would master must be mounted on the run, and no man ever caught the reins of a thought except as it galloped past him.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Running, Men, Thinking

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1911). “From Day to Day with Holmes”

  8 Copy quote

• A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Nature, Royal, Instinct

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (2007). “Professor At The Breakfast Table”, p.240, Reprint Services Corporation

  11 Copy quote

• A woman never forgets her sex. She would rather talk with a man than an angel, any day.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Sex, Angel, Men

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (2007). “The Poet at the Breakfast Table”, p.91, Reprint Services Corporation

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Hate, Science, Men

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1943). “The Mind and Faith of Justice Holmes: His Speeches, Essays, Letters, and Judicial Opinions”, p.444, Transaction Publishers

  9 Copy quote

• The sea drowns out humanity and time. It has no sympathy with either, for it belongs to eternity; and of that it sings its monotonous song forever and ever.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Song, Sea, Forever

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1873). “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table: Every Man His Own Boswell”, p.309

  6 Copy quote

• Seventeen hundred and fifty-five.
  Georgius Secundus was then alive,--
  Snuffy old drone from the German hive.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Drones, Alive, Fifty

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1862). “Songs in Many Keys”, p.167

  4 Copy quote

• The Indian is but a sketch in red crayon of a rudimental manhood. To the problem of his relation to the white race, there is one solution: extermination.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Race, White, Politics

  4 Copy quote

• We call those poets who are first to mark, Through earth's dull mist the coming of the dawn, Who see in twilight's gloom the first pale spark, While others only note that day is gone.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Twilight, Dawn, Gone

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1875). “Songs of Many Seasons : 1862-1874”, p.110

  4 Copy quote

• America is the only place where man is full-grown!

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Military, Men, America

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1860). “The Professor at the Breakfast-table: With The Story of Iris”, p.101

  4 Copy quote

• A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Character, Blow, Aggravation

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1875). “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table: Every Man His Own Boswell”, p.13

  10 Copy quote

• Simple people... are very quick to see the live facts which are going on about them.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Simple, People, Perception

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1868). “The Guardian Angel”, p.321

  7 Copy quote

• See how he throws his baited lines about,/And plays his men as anglers play their trout.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Men, Play, Political

  Oliver Wendell Holmes (1862). “The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes”, p.248

  5 Copy quote

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