Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes was the name of two prominent men, father and son:...
life art pain
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
artist colors employ glorify handling himself man marble materials thoughts verse works
An artist that works in marble or colors has them all to himself and his tribe, but the man who molds his thoughts in verse has to employ the materials vulgarized by everybody's use, and glorify them by his handling
life art past
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!
ancestry features good limbs marks persons signal sit stillness vulgar work
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.
respect
I like children; I like 'em, and I respect 'em. Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by them.
bath few music soul twice week
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.
bigot light mind pupil shine
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract.
courtesy flatter friendship nearer necessary relation tact
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.
fools men wise
Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it
conversation dreadful pathway stick
And when you stick on conversation's burrs, don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.
beware hope human
Beware how you take away hope from any human being.
aim
The very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may thing what we like and say what we think.
court justice
This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.
ahead divided humankind people sit
People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something, and those who sit still and inquire, why wasn't it done the other way?