Oliver Wendell Holmes Quotes

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.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth, when not sought after, rarely comes to light.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Have the courage to act instead of react.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

I find 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.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

If I were dying, my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Don't flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

A child's education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes