Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Quotes

189 Sourced Quotes

Treat bad men exactly as if they were insane. They are in-sane, out of health, morally. Reason, which is food to sound minds, is not tolerated, still less assimilated, unless administered with the greatest caution; perhaps, not at all. Avoid collision with them, so far as you honorably can.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men—from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
The hat is the ultimum moriens of "respectability".

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
The first thing naturally when one enters a scholar's study or library, is to look at his books. One gets a notion very speedily of his tastes and the range of his pursuits by a glance round his book-shelves.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Even in common people, conceit has the virtue of making them cheerful; the man who thinks his wife, his baby, his house, his horse, his dog, and himself severally unequalled, is almost sure to be a good-humored person, though liable to be tedious at times.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
It is by little things that we know ourselves; a soul would very probably mistake itself for another, when once disembodied, were it not for individual experiences which differ from those of others only in details seemingly trifling.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
But Memory blushes at the sneer,
And Honor turns with frown defiant,
And Freedom, leaning on her spear,
Laughs louder than the laughing giant.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
You can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove anything that you want to prove.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
That little Vernier, on whose slender lines
The midnight taper trembles as it shines,
Tells through the mist where dazzled Mercury burns,
And marks the point where Uranus returns.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.