Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Quotes

I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica could be sunk
to the bottom of the sea, it read more

I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica could be sunk
to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind
and all the worse for the fishes.

There are three wicks you know to the lamp of a man's life:
brain, blood, and breath. Press the read more

There are three wicks you know to the lamp of a man's life:
brain, blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light
goes out, followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute,
and out go all three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the
lungs, and presently the fluid ceases to supply the other centres
of flame, and all is soon stagnation, cold, and darkness.

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.

Ay, here her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has read more

Ay, here her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky.

Vain? Let it be so! Nature was her teacher,
What if a lovely and unsistered creature
Loved read more

Vain? Let it be so! Nature was her teacher,
What if a lovely and unsistered creature
Loved her own harmless gift of pleasing feature.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,

There are a good many real miseries in life that we cannot help
smiling at, but they are the read more

There are a good many real miseries in life that we cannot help
smiling at, but they are the smiles that make wrinkles and not
dimples.

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.

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
read more

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat
And the breeches and all that
Are so queer.

Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky:
Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die!
read more

Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky:
Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die!
Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel,
The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal!

Grave is the Master's look; his forehead wears
Thick rows of wrinkles, prints of worrying cares:
Uneasy read more

Grave is the Master's look; his forehead wears
Thick rows of wrinkles, prints of worrying cares:
Uneasy lies the heads of all that rule,
His worst of all whose kingdom is a school.
Supreme he sits; before the awful frown
That binds his brows the boldest eye goes down;
Not more submissive Israel heard and saw
At Sinai's foot the Giver of the Law.