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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, Jr.

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It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. -Oliver Wende...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, One Nation evermore! - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, SR. A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. ~Oliver Wendal...
K. LANGSTON It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no vi...
CHARLES HORTON COOLEY I hate a man who always says yes to me. When I say no I like a man who also says no.
SAMUEL GOLDWYN Decisions! And a general, a commander in chief who has not got the quality of decision, then he is n...
BERNARD LAW MONTGOMERY I believe in general in a dualism between facts and the ideas of those facts in human heads.
GEORGE SANTAYANA I hate when I'm a sexual butterfly and the man I'm with is a damn moth
NERISSA IRVING One of the worst of errors would be the general admission of the proposition that a Government has n...
NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR I would say that in general, Cisco is a very strong research and development organization.
CHARLES GIANCARLO It is nonsense for the Attorney General to say she had no more options,
DENNIS HASTERT The man who is always worrying whether or not his soul would be damned generally has a soul that isn...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES While friendship has been by far the chief source of my happiness, acquaintance or general society h...
C.S. LEWIS Ronald Reagan in foreign affairs, I think, was someone who had certain, very general ideas, general ...
ROBERT DALLEK It is necessary to bear in mind that Scripture only teaches the chief points of those true principle...
MAIMONIDES For the general community in Canada, I would say that this is a reminder of the importance of keepin...
HARRY HULL Well, I try not to think about the general public since I have no idea what the general public is an...
ELLIOTT SMITH I'm not absolutely certain of the facts, but I rather fancy it's Shakespeare who says that it's alwa...
P.G. WODEHOUSE Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder...
THOMAS JEFFERSON I don't know if we'll end up with a sexy general manager, ... I'm not sure I know exactly what that ...
DAVID MONTGOMERY GENERAL INTELLIGENCE! Form a straight line.
BRIAN SPELLMAN Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you...
C. JOYBELL C. Holiness, not happiness, is the chief end of man.
OSWALD CHAMBERS In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical ...
EDMUND BURKE It is fair to say that, in general, no problems have been exhausted; instead, men have been exhauste...
SANTIAGO RAMóN Y CAJAL I think there is a kind of general deference that is accorded the prosecutors,
FC DALLAS There is no way Top Wind can think that I am going to breeze in and buy a flute, so I can truthfully...
JAMES GALWAY I am a fairly orthodox Christian. Every Sunday, I say and do my best to mean the whole of the Creed,...
FRANCIS SPUFFORD There are two great rules of life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that every...
SAMUEL BUTLER The chief knowledge that a man gets from reading books is the knowledge that very few of them are wo...
H. L. MENCKEN The chief knowledge that a man gets from reading books is the knowledge that very few of them are wo...
HENRY LOUIS MENCKEN The spectacle takes us away from our routines. For at least a time, we feel part of something big, c...
NEL NODDINGS I hate to let people down. I was like that in sports and I was like that in comedy. I was like that ...
BERNIE MAC I would say that workers in general, and white workers particularly, are correct that their economic...
ANDY STERN General principles... are to the facts as the root and sap of a tree are to its leaves.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Life is not a game. Still, in this life, we choose the games we live to play.
J.R. RIM In general there's a rule of thumb that one year in the state system is worth two or three in the fe...
DAVID GOUREVITCH In general, the higher end of the market is holding up much better than the lower end.
GREGORY KLUMP I wouldn't say disappointing. I think surprising is the right word. And that includes sales to the g...
PAT HANLON They say, 'No, no, it's too much paperwork, and the attorney general is not trying to help' and they...
FERNANDO MORONES General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be.
JANE AUSTEN Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milde...
THOMAS JEFFERSON What I want is the general betterment of pets. No-kill is a part of that. I'd like to see that p...
DAVID DUFFIELD The first, or theoretic branch, that which explains the nature, production, and distribution of weal...
NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR The fact that there is a general belief in a future life is no evidence of its truth
CLARENCE DARROW The Chief Compliance Officer reporting to the General Counsel can work great, until it doesn't.
DONNA BOEHME In general, of course, a stranger who tries to get you into an automobile is anything but noble, and...
LEMONY SNICKET There is a general consensus in the community of the need for a multipurpose facility. A general con...
RYAN SIMS The broad general rule is that a man is about as big as the things that make him angry.
SOURCE UNKNOWN The rhetoric in general on both sides often had little connection to the facts.
BILL PLANTE I believe that life is a journey towards God, and that no one has the right to insist that you go a ...
PAT BUCKLEY As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad pic...
EDMOND DE GONCOURT As a general truth, it is safe to say that any picture that produces a moral impression is a bad pic...
EDMOND AND JULES DE GONCOURT A constitutional statesman is in general a man of common opinions and uncommon abilities.
WALTER BAGEHOT No question. We're certainly appreciative. We're glad to have him. I think his presence has done a l...
COREY CHAVOUS In general, I almost always watch foreign films.
ALEXANDRA FULLER Law is no explanation of anything; law is simply a generalization, a category of facts. Law is neith...
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE In general, it's not that hard to build passenger terminals. Overall, the project is perfectly feasi...
BORIS RYBAK I am disillusioned enough to know that no man's opinion on any subject is worth a damn unless ba...
H. P. LOVECRAFT We expect to also establish some form of community solidarity mechanism in the case if there is a ga...
ANDRIS PIEBALGS A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himse...
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himse...
ALEXANDER BELL A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with -- a man is what he makes of hims...
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himse...
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL One of the problems with that is that author's lives and works in general don't always correlate,
ANTHONY DAWSON As a General Authority, it is my responsibility to preach general principles. When I do, I don't try...
DALLIN H. OAKS Facts are stupid until brought into connection with some general law.
LOUIS AGASSIZ I find it hard enough to tackle facts, Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies."
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE War is no solution to peace.
BEN OAK It is a disgrace and an insult to all of us. I wrote to both the [British] Attorney General and the ...
HEATHER SHARMA Peace does not walk up to our doorsteps and press the calling bell! We have to go out there and sear...
AVIJEET DAS I want to be this generation's Sherlock Holmes. That is, the man to solve first world problems.
J.R. RIM People in general are cruel to one another. The only way to have fun to them is to make fun of someo...
G. K. CHESTERTON All I want to do is be the best attorney general that I can be.
PAM BONDI Everyone is always in favor of general economy and particular expenditure.
SIR ANTHONY EDEN Everyone is always in favour of general economy and particular expenditure.
ANTHONY EDEN Everybody is always in favor of general economy and particular expenditure
ANTHONY EDEN The case for intelligent design as a religious proposition is overwhelming, Clearly, no valid secula...
ERIC ROTHSCHILD I don't know if I have a favorite color.
KATE MIDDLETON It's very special having a new little girl.
KATE MIDDLETON Clearly our intention is to proceed. At this point I have no intention to recommend to the secretary...
JAMSHEED MARKER My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of...
CHARLES DARWIN I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate -- it's apathy. It's not giving a...
LEO BUSCAGLIA I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate-it's apathy. It's not giving a da...
LEO BUSCAGLIA Hurdling, sprinting, athletics in general, is always in the back of your mind.
SALLY PEARSON A man once told me that there are infinite places love will take you, but revenge is the business of...
TARA BROWN, A.E WATSON I try to write like the writers I admire - I rip them off in form. It comes from George Strait and M...
BRAD PAISLEY Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the lev...
SAMUEL JOHNSON In general, our stance is that the greatest threat to a depressed person is to receive no treatment ...
JASON YOUNG As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI I have always found that the man whose second thoughts are good is worth watching.
JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE His life seemed like a deck of cards, and in the midst of all those two’s and three’s someone ha...
TEKOA MANNING In general, I have come to the conclusion that he is not always a reliable witness and that any affi...
JOHN GOMERY They passed legislation in 2003 providing that most of the cost of the drug benefit would be borne b...
MARILYN MOON The power of administrative bodies to make finding of fact which may be treated as conclusive, if th...
CHARLES HUGHES In general, I find that for videos the acting is more realistic.
TARA STRONG As a general thing, I have not 'duped the world' nor attempted to do so... I have generally ...
P. T. BARNUM Not upholding a persons legal rights is a form of abuse. Unfortunately, USA government abuse of the ...
STEVEN MAGEE I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album ref...
EMINEM

More Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

If I were dying, my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Every calling is great when greatly pursued.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. When in doubt, do it.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions th...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but forc...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The language of judicial decision is mainly the language of logic. And the logical method and form f...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Every idea is an incitement... eloquence may set fire to reason.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy - I don'...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. A new untruth is better than an old truth.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obs...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Young man, the secret of my success is that at early age I discovered that I was not God.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Eloquence may set fire to reason.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Life is action and passion; therefore, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. On the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The great act of faith is when a man decides he is not God.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make fac...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The rule of joy and the law of duty seem to me all one.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Most of the things we do, we do for no better reason than that our father's have done them or our ne...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. I confess that altruistic and cynically selfish talk seem to me about equally unreal. With all humil...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The riders in a race do not stop when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. For I say unto you in all sadness of conviction that to think great thoughts you must be heroes as w...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. For, stripped of the temporary associations which gave rise to it, it is now the moment when by comm...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make fa...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. You make me chuckle when you say that you are no longer young, that you have turned twenty-four. A m...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any o...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best book...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. A child's education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The great act of faith is when a man decides he is not God.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. To know is not less than to feel.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A page of history is worth a pound of logic.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than command...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. People talk fundamentals and superlatives and then make some changes of detail.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in which direction we are moving.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. If a man hasn't got plenty of good common sense, the more science he has the worse for his patient.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. I despise making the most of one's time. Half of the pleasures of life consist of the opportunities ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at the touch, nay, you may kick it about all day l...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Nothing is so frequent as to mistake an ordinary human gift for a special and extraordinary endowmen...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Every event that a man would master must be mounted on the run, and no man ever caught the reins of ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas [and] the best test of truth is t...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are movi...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. It is the province of knowledge to speak
And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passio...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, b...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. To live is to function. That is all there is in living.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will c...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Our test of truth is a reference to either a present or imagined future majority in favour of our vi...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A moment's insight is sometimes worth a lifetime's experience.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Carve every word before you let it fall.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. When I want to understand what is happening today or try to decide what will happen tomorrow, I look...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. What I wouldn't give to be seventy again!
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than command...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Life is action and passion; therefore it is required of a man that he should share the passion and a...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Don't be 'consistent,' but be simply true.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The man of action has the present, but the thinker controls the future.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will c...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than the investigation of the...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul w...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. A child's education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Beware how you take away hope from any human being.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Any two philosophers can tell each other all they know in two hours.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Life is action and passion; therefore, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. You commit a sin of omission if you do not utilize all the power that is within you. All men have cl...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. On the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. The riders in a race do not stop when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Beware how you take away hope from any human being.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul w...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. For I say unto you in all sadness of conviction that to think great thoughts you must be heroes as w...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. You make me chuckle when you say that you are no longer young, that you have turned twenty-four. A m...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. There is no friend like an old friend who has shared our morning days, no greeting like his welcome,...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. To be civilized is to be potentially master of all possible ideas, and that means that one has got b...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us t...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. The rules of evidence in the main are based on experience, logic, and common sense, less hampered by...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR. I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES JR. Life is a romantic business. It is painting a picture, not doing a sumbut you have to make the roman...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Great constitutional provisions must be administered with caution. Some play must be allowed for the...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES It cannot be helped, it is as it should be, that the law is behind the times.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES When twenty years ago a vague terror went over the earth and the word socialism began to be heard, I...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Nature has but one judgment on wrong conductif you can call that a judgment which seemingly has no r...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES I do not think the United States would come to an end if we lost our power to declare an Act of Cong...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES But the character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done. The most stringen...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES I always say, as you know, that if my fellow citizens want to go to Hell I will help them. Its my jo...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES I confess that I do not understand the principle on which the power to fix a minimum for the wages o...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Gentlemen, to the lady without whom I should never have survived for eighty, nor sixty, nor yet thir...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even m...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The power to tax is not the power to destroy while this Court sits.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A question like the present should be disposed of without undue delay. But a State cannot be expecte...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The general rule, at least, is that while property may be regulated to a certain extent, if regulati...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Speak not too well of one who scarce will knowHimself transfigured in its roseate glow;Say kindly of...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Every living sentence which shows a mind at work for itself is to be welcomed. It is not the first u...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES O Damsel Dorothy! Dorothy Q. !Strange is the gift that I owe to you;Such a gift as never a kingSave ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES I should like to see any kind of a man, distinguishable from a gorilla that some good and even prett...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES There is no time like the old time, when you and I were young,
When the buds of April blossomed, ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Old books, you know well, are books of the world's youth, and new books are the fruits of its age.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The most foolish kind of a book is a kind of leaky boat on the sea of wisdom; some of the wisdom wil...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES We must have a weak spot or two in our character before we can love it much.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A new untruth is better than an old truth.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Truth, when not sought after, rarely comes to light.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at the touch, nay, you may kick it about all day l...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES To live is to function. That is all there is in living.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES It is faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth looking at.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES On the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Love is the master key which opens the gates of happiness.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Every calling is great when greatly pursued.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not dri...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them: Alas for those that never sin...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The older author is constantly rediscovering himself in the more or less fossilized productions of h...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Men are idolaters and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; t...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it will co...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES You commit a sin of omission if you do not utilize all the power that is within you. All men have cl...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A good soldier, like a good horse, cannot be of a bad color.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense o...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES I firmly believe that if the whole material medical could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul w...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Our brains our seventy year clocks, the angel of life winds them up once and for all, then closes th...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES People talk fundamentals and superlatives and then make some changes of detail.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Simple people... are very quick to see the live facts which are going on about them.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES What a comfort a dull but kindly person is, to be sure, at times! A ground-glass shade over a gas-la...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Stupidity often saves a man from going mad.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES This is a court of law young man, not a court of justice.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Life and language are alike sacred. Homicide and verbicide --that is, violent treatment of a word wi...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Knowledge like timber shouldn't be mush use till they are seasoned.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES This is an inquisitive age, and if we insist on piling up beyond a certain height knowledge which is...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Good Americans when they die, go to Paris.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best book...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Several years before birth, advertise for a couple of parents belonging to long-lived families.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Youth fades; love droops, the leaves of friendship fall;
A mother's secret hope outlives them al...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action o...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Beauty is the index of a larger fact than wisdom.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES ... the hydrostatic paradox of controversy. Don't you know what that means? Well, I will tell you. Y...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if it has common sense on the ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES And when you stick on conversation's burrs, don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Little-minded people's thoughts move in such small circles that five minutes conversation gives you ...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A child's education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Grow we must, if we outgrow all that loves us.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Man's mind, stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than command...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to i...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES There never was an idea started that woke up men out of their stupid indifference but its originator...
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES What I call a good patient is one who, having found a good physician, sticks to him till he dies.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand the vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES