Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Quotes

Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.

Lord of all being, throned afar, Thy glory flames from sun and star; Centre and soul of every sphere, Yet to each loving heart how near!

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.

Apology is only egotism wrong side out.

We must have a weak spot or two in a character before we can love it much.

Fate tried to conceal him by calling him Smith.

Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.

Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay That was built in such a logical way, It ran a hundred years to a day.

Shabby gentility has nothing so characteristic as its hat.

Talk about those subjects you have had long in your mind, and listen to what others say about subjects you have studied but recently. Knowledge and timber shouldn’t be much used till they are seasoned.

The world’s great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men.

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.

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past!

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

Some of the sharpest men in argument are notoriously unsound in judgment.

When one has had all his conceit taken out of him, when he has lost all his illusions, his feathers will soon soak through, and he will fly no more.

A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.