Inspirational Quotations by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
- Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used, till they are seasoned.
- Now habit is a labor-saving invention which enables a man to get along with less fuel.
- A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times. It has come to you over a new route, by a new and express train of associations.
- I talk half the time to find out my own thoughts, as a school-boy turns his pockets inside out to see what is in them. One brings to light all sorts of personal property he had forgotten in his inventory.
- Men are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if you don't make it of wood, you must make it of words . . .
- 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.
- Be polite and generous, but don't undervalue yourself. You will be useful, at any rate; you may just as well be happy, while you are about it.
- The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer.
- Knowledge -- it excites prejudices to call it science -- is advancing as irresistibly, as majestically, as remorselessly as the ocean moves in upon the shore.
- He must be a poor creature that does not often repeat himself. Imagine the author of the excellent piece of advice, \Know thyself,\" never alluding to that sentiment again during the course of a protracted existence! "
- Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else, - very rarely to those who say to themselves, "Go to, now, let us be a celebrated individual!"
- Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.