Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

    Memory is a net; one finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook; but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    Speak clearly, if you speak at all;
    Carve every word before you let it fall.
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    My grandmother stood among her kettles and ladles.
    Smiling, in faulty grammar,
    She praised my fortune and urged my lofty career.
    So to please her I studied—but I will remember always
    How she poured confusion out, how she cooled and labeled
    All the wild sauces of the brimming year.
    —Mary Oliver (b. 1935)

    It was a tall young oysterman lived by the river-side,
    His shop was just upon the bank, his boat was on the tide;
    The daughter of a fisherman, that was so straight and slim,
    Lived over on the other bank, right opposite to him.
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    “No, no; the real name,” said Holmes sweetly. “It is always awkward doing business with an alias.”
    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)