Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Quotes - 9quotes.com

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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.
Written by 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.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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.
Written by 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.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground-floor. But if a man hasn't got plenty of good common sense, the more science he has, the worse for his patient.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
A woman never forgets her sex. She would rather talk with a man than an angel, any day.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Have the courage to act instead of react.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.
Written by 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.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
A child's education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born.
Written by 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.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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.
Written by 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.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Don't be 'consistent', but be simply true.
Written by 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.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse. One comfort we have - Cincinnati sounds worse.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear.
Written by 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.
Written by 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!'.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Grow we must, if we outgrow all that loves us.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.
Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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