Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Ah, pensive scholar, what is fame?
A fitful tongue of leaping flame;
A giddy whirlwind's fickle gust,
read more

Ah, pensive scholar, what is fame?
A fitful tongue of leaping flame;
A giddy whirlwind's fickle gust,
That lifts a pinch of mortal dust;
A few swift years, and who can show
Which dust was Bill, and which was Joe?

Stop not, unthinking, every friend you meet
To spin your wordy fabric in the street;
While you read more

Stop not, unthinking, every friend you meet
To spin your wordy fabric in the street;
While you are emptying your colloquial pack,
The fiend Lumbago jumps upon his back.

Science is the topography of ignorance.

Science is the topography of ignorance.

Of course everybody likes and respects self-made men. It is a
great deal better to be made in that read more

Of course everybody likes and respects self-made men. It is a
great deal better to be made in that way than not to be made at
all.

The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor
its great scholars great men.

The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor
its great scholars great men.