Oliver Wendell Holmes

“ Quackery and idolatry are all but immortal
Question everything
Racing horses are essentially gambling implements
Rapidity with which ideas grow old in our memories
Rather meet three of the scowlers than one of the smilers. ”

“ Clairvoyance which sees into things without opening them
Code of finalities is a necessary condition of profitable talk
Comfort is essential to enjoyment
Commerce is just putting his granite foot upon them
Common sense was good enough for him
Common sense, as you understand it. ”

“ Life would be nothing without paper-credit
Life is maintained by the respiration of oxygen and of sentiment
Like taking the cat in your lap after holding a squirrel
Listen to what others say about subjects you have studied
Little great man
Little muscle which knows its importance
Little narrow streaks of specialized knowledge
Live on the reputation of the reputation they might have made
Living in a narrow world of dry habits
Logic
Logicians carry the surveyor's chain over the track
Long illness is the real vampyrism
Look through the silvered rings of the arcus senilis! ”

“ What a satire, by the way, is that machine
What are the great faults of conversation? ”

“ Saturation-point of each mind differs from that of every other
Saying one thing about it and believing another
Scientific certainty has no spring in it
Scientific knowledge
Second story projecting
See if the ripe fruit were better or worse
Self-assertion, such as free suffrage introduces
Self-love is a cup without any bottom
Self-made men? ”

“ Humility is the first of the virtues—for other people ”

“ Our brains are seventy-year clocks ”

“ Shy of asking questions of those who know enough to destroy
SIN has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all
Single combats between dead authors and living housemaids
Singular inability to weigh the value of testimony
Six persons engaged in every dialogue between two
Slow to accept marvellous stories and many forms of superstition
Small potatoes always get to the bottom. ”

“ Hard it is for some people to get out of a room
He did not know so much about old age then as he does now
He that has once done you a kindness
He who is carried by horses must deal with rogues
Height of art to conceal art
Her breathing was somewhat hurried and high, or thoracic
Here lies buried the soul of the licentiate Pedro Garcias
Hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer
Hold their outspread hands over your head
Holes in all her pockets
Hoped he did deserve a little abuse occasionally
Hopelessly dull discourse acts inductively
How long will school-keeping take to kill you? ”

“ Key to this side-door
Knowledge and timber only useful when seasoned
La main de fer sous le gant de velours
Laid the egg of the Reformation which Luther hatched
Laughs at times at the grand airs "Science" puts on
Law of the road with regard to handsome faces
Leading a string of my mind's daughters to market
Leap at a single bound into celebrity
Learn anything twice as easily as in my earlier days
Leave your friend to learn unpleasant truths from his enemies
Lecturer is public property
Let us cry! ”

“ But we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. ”