Oliver Wendell Holmes

Explore inspiring quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, a remarkable figure whose words continue to inspire and motivate people around the world.

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truth

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friendship

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wisdom

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love

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music

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men

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Featured Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Some of the most memorable quotes from this author

"Old age is fifteen years older than I am."

— Oliver Wendell Holmesage

"Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum."

— Oliver Wendell Holmesart

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmesbeauty

"The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books."

— Oliver Wendell Holmesbest

"I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team!"

— Oliver Wendell Holmesbest

"Have the courage to act instead of react."

— Oliver Wendell Holmescourage

All Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes

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"Old age is fifteen years older than I am."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

ageView Quote

"Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

artView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

beautyView Quote

"The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

bestView Quote

"I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team!"

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

bestView Quote

"Have the courage to act instead of react."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

courageView Quote

"A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

deathView Quote

"The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

educationView Quote

"It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

faithView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

faithView Quote

"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

freedomView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

friendshipView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

friendshipView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

friendshipView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

friendshipView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

futureView Quote

"Fresh air is good if you do not take too much of it most of the achievements and pleasures of life are in bad air."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

goodView Quote

"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

greatView Quote

"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

greatView Quote

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

happinessView Quote

"Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

historyView Quote

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

homeView Quote

"Don't you stay at home of evenings? Don't you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?"

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

homeView Quote

"Beware how you take away hope from another human being."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

hopeView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

imaginationView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

knowledgeView Quote

"The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

learningView Quote

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

loveView Quote

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

loveView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

menView Quote

"Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

menView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

moneyView Quote

"Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

musicView Quote

"A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them: Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!"

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

musicView Quote

"The Amen of nature is always a flower."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

natureView Quote

"Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

natureView Quote

"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

religionView Quote

"I hate facts. I always say the chief end of man is to form general propositions - adding that no general proposition is worth a damn."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

scienceView Quote

"Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

scienceView Quote

"A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

societyView Quote

"Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

timeView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

trustView Quote

"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

truthView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

truthView Quote

"A new untruth is better than an old truth."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

truthView Quote

"Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

truthView Quote

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

weddingView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

wisdomView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

wisdomView Quote

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

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

wisdomView Quote

"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

womenView Quote

"Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth."

-Oliver Wendell Holmes

workView Quote

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Oliver Wendell Holmes

Top Categories by Oliver Wendell Holmes

truth

friendship

wisdom

love

music

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great

faith

Featured Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes

All Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Old age is fifteen years older than I am."

"Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum."

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

"The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books."

"I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team!"

"Have the courage to act instead of react."

"A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide."

"The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live."

"It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living."

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

"Fresh air is good if you do not take too much of it most of the achievements and pleasures of life are in bad air."

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

"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving."

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."

"Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads."

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."

"Don't you stay at home of evenings? Don't you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?"

"Beware how you take away hope from another human being."

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

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

"The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live."

"Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts."

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."

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

"Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it."

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

"Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out."

"A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them: Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!"

"The Amen of nature is always a flower."

"Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left."

"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."

"I hate facts. I always say the chief end of man is to form general propositions - adding that no general proposition is worth a damn."

"Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor."

"A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend."

"Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out."

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

"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."

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

"A new untruth is better than an old truth."

"Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth."

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness."

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

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

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

"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."

"Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth."

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