Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Quotes

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Profession : Writer

Birth : August 29, 1809

I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The mind of a bigot to the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Do not be bullied out of your common sense by the specialist; two to one, he is a pedant.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Apology is only egotism wrong side out.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Grow we must, if we outgrow all that loves us.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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.

Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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.

The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Why can't somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says, and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I like children; I like 'em, and I respect 'em. Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by them.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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.

Memory is a net: one finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook, but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more rarely than those who try to be 'consistent'.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse. One comfort we have - Cincinnati sounds worse.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Stupidity often saves a man from going mad.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.