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Oliver Wendell Holmes

41 quotes

The quotes of Oliver Wendell Holmes have been shared, printed, and passed along for good reason. Whether reflecting on Truth or Friendship, Oliver Wendell Holmes brought uncommon clarity to every subject. Explore 52 quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes on subjects including Truth, Friendship, Wisdom, Science, and Nature — each one a window into a distinctive way of seeing the world. Readers often gravitate to this one: "The Amen of nature is always a flower."

“A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Society

All Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Friendship

“The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Wisdom

“Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Friendship

“Old age is fifteen years older than I am.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Age

“The Amen of nature is always a flower.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Nature

“I hate facts. I always say the chief end of man is to form general propositions - adding that no general proposition is worth a damn.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Science

“Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics out of the chips that were left.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Nature

“If I were dying my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Faith

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Faith

“The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Best

“Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Science

“The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Education

“The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Great

“Men do not quit playing because they grow old they grow old because they quit playing.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Men

“A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Society

“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Freedom

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Happiness

“Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Art

“A new untruth is better than an old truth.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Friendship