Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Quotes

“But this is only the sentimental side of the matter; for grow we must, if we outgrow all that we love.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

topic:love

“Poetry uses the rainbow tints for special effects, but always keeps its essential object in the purest white light of truth.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

topic:truthlightpoetry

“In fact, there's nothing that keeps its youth, So far as I know, but a tree and truth.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

topic:truthyouth

“When I think of talking, it is of course with a woman. For talking at its best being an inspiration, it wants a corresponding divine quality of receptiveness; and where will you find this but in woman?”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast-Table

topic:womentalking

“Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used, till they are seasoned.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

topic:knowledge

“Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

topic:realitythought

“A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

topic:stupiditymadnessweakness

“The Amen! of Nature is always a flower.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

topic:nature

“What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred?”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Over the Teacups

topic:readingbooks

“Memory is a net; one finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook; but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking.”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

topic:memoryforgetting