Quotes from Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

A man must get a thing before he can forget it.

The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.

A day's impact is better than a month of dead pull.

Pick my left pocket of its silver dime, but spare the right-it holds my golden time!

Realize life as an end in itself. Functioning is all there is.

For me, at least, there came moments when faith wavered. But there is the great lesson and the great triumph: keep the fire burning until, by and by, out of the mass of sordid details there comes some result.

When I feel inclined to read poetry I take down my dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as that of sentences. The author may arrange the gems effectively but their shape and lustre have been given by the attrition of ages.

The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.

A minister is coming down every generation nearer and nearer to the common level of the useful citizen - no oracle at all, but a man of more than average moral instincts, who if he knows anything, knows how little he knows.

Apology is only egotism wrong side out.

Apology - a desperate habit, and one that is rarely cured.

Imitation is a necessity of human nature.

The secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered I was not God.

We expect more of ourselves than we have any right to.

The reward of the general is not a bigger tent, but command.

The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms.

Talking is like playing on the harp, there is as much in laying the hand on the strings to stop their vibrations as in twanging them to bring out their music.

When I want to understand what is happening today or try to decide what will happen tomorrow, I look back.

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

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that; one stitch at a time taken patiently, and the pattern will come out all right, like embroidery.

When I feel inclined to read poetry, I take down my dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as the poetry of sentences.

When the style is fully formed, if it has a sweet undersong, we call it beautiful, and the writer may do what he likes in words or syntax.

Thanksgiving is the winding up of autumn. The leaves are off the trees, except here and there on a beech or an oak; there is nothing left on the boughs but a few nuts and empty birds' nests. The earth looks desolate, and it will be a comfort to have the snow on the ground, and to hear the merry jingle of the sleigh-bells.