Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. - The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858)

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I find that 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, Sr.
Men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
The mind of the bigot [is like] the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
I never saw an author in my life, saving perhaps one, that did not purr as audibly as a full-grown domestic cat on having his fur smoothed the right way by a skillful hand.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
There was never an idea started that woke up men out of their stupid indifference but its originator was spoken of as a crank.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
End of the wonderful one-hoss shay.
Logic is logic. That's all I say.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man, if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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, Sr.
Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.