Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. > Quotes

“A man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

“Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.”
― Oliver Wendall Holmes

“Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

“What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred?”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Over the Teacups

“Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving—we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

“Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

“Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

“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.

“The books we read should be chosen with great care, that they may be, as an Egyptian king wrote over his library,'The medicines of the soul.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out.”
― Oliver Wendall Holmes

“The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn't give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Death tugs at my ear and says, 'Live. I am coming.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“Beware how you take away hope from another human being”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“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?”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Man has his will, but woman has her way.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them!”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Speak clearly if you speak at all, carve every word before you let it fall.”
― Oliver Wendall Holmes

“Learn the sweet magic of a cheerful face.”
― Oliver Wendall Holmes

“To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

“The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of an eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all. ”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes

“The great thing in this world, is not so much where we are, but in which direction we are moving.”
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.