Quotes By Author

Quotations By Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Age

Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.

Doubt

To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

Education

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension.

Existence

A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.

Fame

Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Fashion

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Heresy

Rough work, iconoclasm, - but the only way to get at truth.

Mother

Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; a mother's secret hope outlives them all!

Music

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Neighbor

The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors.

Science

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called "Facts". They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Truth

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day, like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.

Wit

The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Women

A woman never forgets her sex. She would rather talk with a man than an angel, any day. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.