1809-1894, American Author, Wit, Poet
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Speech]
Speak not too well of one who scarce will know himself transfigured in its roseate glow; Say kindly of him what is, chiefly, true, remembering always he belongs to you; Deal with him as a truant, if you will, But claim him, keep him, call him brother still!
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Brotherhood]
Stillness and steadiness of features are signal marks of good breeding. Vulgar persons can't sit still, or at least must always work their limbs and features.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Ancestry]
Stupidity often saves a man from going mad.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Stupidity]
Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Praise]
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Music]
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 – [Advice]
The Amen of nature is always a flower.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Flowers]
The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Books and Reading]
The freeman, casting with unpurchased hand the vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Democracy]
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Vision]
The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Faith]
The greatest tragedy in America is not the destruction of our natural resources, though that tragedy is great. The truly great tragedy is the destruction of our human resources by our failure to fully utilize our abilities, which means that most men and women go to their graves with their music still in them.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Tragedies]
The man who is always worrying whether or not his soul would be damned generally has a soul that isn't worth a damn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Soul]
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it will contract.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Prejudice]
The minute a phrase, becomes current, it becomes an apology for not thinking accurately to the end of the sentence.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Thoughts and Thinking]
The mode in which the inevitable comes to pass is through effort.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Achievement]
The most foolish kind of a book is a kind of leaky boat on the sea of wisdom; some of the wisdom will get in anyhow.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Books and Reading]
The older author is constantly rediscovering himself in the more or less fossilized productions of his earlier years.
Oliver Wendell Holmes – [Writers and Writing]
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 – [Kisses and Kissing]
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