Oliver Wendell Holmes

Famous quotes containing the words oliver wendell holmes, wendell holmes, oliver wendell and/or wendell:

“And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

“What I call a good patient is one who, having found a good physician, sticks to him till he dies.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

“A great calamity ... is as old as the trilobites an hour after it has happened.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

“Unpretending mediocrity is good, and genius is glorious; but a weak flavor of genius in an essentially common person is detestable. It spoils the grand neutrality of a commonplace character, as the rinsings of an unwashed wine-glass spoil a draught of fair water.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)