Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. the Poet, biography, facts and quotes

"The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions"

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

"Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else"

"Knowledge like timber shouldn't be mush use till they are seasoned"

"The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size"

"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"

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

"Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum"

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

"Every calling is great when greatly pursued"

"Have the courage to act instead of react"

"Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force"

"A person is always startled when he hears himself called old for the first time"

"Fresh air is good if you do not take too much of it; most of the achievements and pleasures of life are in bad air"

"A new untruth is better than an old truth"

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

"A great calamity is as old as the trilobites an hour after it has happened"

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

"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!"

"Apology is only egotism wrong side out"

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

"A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times"

"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"

"Happiness consists in activity. It is running steam, not a stagnant pool"

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

"Beware how you take away hope from another human being"

"Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end"

"Don't you stay at home of evenings? Don't you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?"

"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"

"Don't be "consistent" but be simple true"

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

"Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it"

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

"Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads"

"Every idea is an incitement... Eloquence may set fire to reason"

"Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow"

"He has half the deed done who has made a beginning"

"Stupidity often saves a man from going mad"

"Stillness of person and steadiness of features are signal marks of good breeding"

"Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall"

"Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good"

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

"Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor"

"Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing"

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

"Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel"

"Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out"

"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up"

"Love prefers twilight to daylight"

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness"

Occup.	Poet
From	USA
Born	August 29, 1809 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Died	October 8, 1894 Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Aged	85 years

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Biography

78 Famous quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.