Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Quotes

Day hath put on his jacket, and around
His burning bosom buttoned it with stars.

Day hath put on his jacket, and around
His burning bosom buttoned it with stars.

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.

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.

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.,

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.

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.

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.

Science is the topography of ignorance.

Science is the topography of ignorance.

I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we
stand as in what read more

I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we
stand as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of
heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes
against it--but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.