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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."

“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

All Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Hope

“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

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Men

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Nature

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Society

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Great

“Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Beauty

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Faith

“Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Money

“Have the courage to act instead of react.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Courage

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Home

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Friendship

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Friendship

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

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

History

“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

“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