Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

    Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1809–1894)

    The parson was working his Sunday’s text,—
    Had got to fifthly, and stopped perplexed
    At what the—Moses—was coming next.
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    Life and language are alike sacred. Homicide and verbicide—that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life—are alike forbidden.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    “A man,” said Oliver Cromwell, “never rises so high as when he knows not whither he is going.” Dreams and drunkenness, the use of opium and alcohol are the semblance and counterfeit of this oracular genius, and hence their dangerous attraction for men. For the like reason they ask the aid of wild passions, as in gaming and war, to ape in some manner these flames and generosities of the heart.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Why can’t somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says, and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks.
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)