Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Quotes

Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; one is wind-power, and the other water-power; that is all. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,--but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. You know well enough what I mean by youth and age;--something in the soul, which has no more to do with the color of the hair than the vein of gold in a rock has to do with the grass a thousand feet above it. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. You may set it down as a truth which admits of few exceptions, that those who ask your OPINION really want your PRAISE, and will be contented with nothing less. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. 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. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used, till they are seasoned. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. Good mental machinery ought to break its own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among them suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse their motion. A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. You can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove anything that you want to prove. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.