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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."

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth

All Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Beware how you take away hope from another human being.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Hope

“Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Imagination

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Faith

“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

“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

“Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Men

“Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

History

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Nature

“Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Beauty

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Great

“But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Friendship

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth

“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

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Friendship

“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

“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

“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

Death

“Fresh air is good if you do not take too much of it most of the achievements and pleasures of life are in bad air.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Good

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Happiness

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

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