Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Quotes

Man has his will, but woman has her way.

Have the courage to act instead of react.

To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.

Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.

Beware how you take away hope from any human being.

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men in the same way - and the fools know it.

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

Truth, when not sought after, rarely comes to light.

Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.

Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer.

Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all.

A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.

Stupidity often saves a man from going mad.

Death tugs at my ear and says, 'Live. I am coming.

We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were early implanted in his imagination; no matter how utterly his reason may reject them...

Learn the sweet magic of a cheerful face.

A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.

Don't flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.

Leverage is everything-don't begin to pry until you've got the long arm on your side.