Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

    “O, better that her shattered hulk
    Should sink beneath the wave;
    Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
    And there should be her grave;
    Nail to the mast her holy flag,
    Set every threadbare sail,
    And give her to the god of storms,
    The lightning and the gale!”
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    “Little-minded people’s thoughts move in such small circles that five minutes’ conversation gives you an arc long enough to determine their whole curve.”
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    “And when you stick on conversation’s burrs,
    Don’t strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.”
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    “the hatchlings wake in the swaying branches,
    in the silver baskets,
    and love the world.
    Is it necessary to say any more?
    Have you heard them singing in the wind, above the final fields?
    Have you ever been so happy in your life?”
    —Mary Oliver (b. 1935)

    “To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.”
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)