43 Famous Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
8/29/1809 - 10/7/1894
Also Known As:
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Professions:
Information:
About Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was an American physician, poet, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. He is also recognized as an important medical reformer.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Holmes was educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard College. After graduating from Harvard in 1829, he briefly studied law before turning to the medical profession. He began writing poetry at an early age; one of his most famous works, "Old Ironsides", was published in 1830 and was influential in the eventual preservation of the USS Constitution. Following training at the prestigious medical schools of Paris, Holmes was granted his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1836. He taught at Dartmouth Medical School before returning to teach at Harvard and, for a time, served as dean there. During his long professorship, he became an advocate for various medical reforms and notably posited the controversial idea that doctors were capable of carrying puerperal fever from patient to patient. Holmes retired from Harvard in 1882 and continued writing poetry, novels and essays until his death in 1894.
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I find that 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.
Innovation
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
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Of course everybody likes and respects self-made men. It is a
great deal better to be made in that way than not to be made at
all.
Education
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (l. 1)
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As vessels starting from ports thousands of miles apart pass
close to each other in the naked breadth of the ocean, nay,
sometimes even touch in the dark.
Meeting
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Professor at the Breakfast Table
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Vain? Let it be so! Nature was her teacher,
What if a lovely and unsistered creature
Loved her own harmless gift of pleasing feature.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,
Vanity
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Iris, Her Book--The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (X)
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The first thing naturally when one enters a scholar's study or
library, is to look at his books. One gets a notion very
speedily of his tastes and the range of his pursuits by a glance
round his book-shelves.
Libraries
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Poet at the Breakfast Table (VIII)
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Ay, here her tattered ensign down!
Long has it waved on high,
And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky.
Flags
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: A Metrical Essay
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Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the God of storms,
The lightning and the gale.
Flags
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: A Metrical Essay
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Scarce one tall frigate walks the sea
Or skirts the safer shores
Of all that bore to victory
Our stout old Commodores.
Navy
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: at a dinner given to Admiral Farragut
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Thou art a female, Katydid!
I know it by the trill
That quivers through thy piercing notes
So petulant and shrill.
I think there is a knot of you
Beneath the hollow tree,
A knot of spinster Katydids,--
Do Katydids drink tea?
Katydids
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: To an Insect
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Grave is the Master's look; his forehead wears
Thick rows of wrinkles, prints of worrying cares:
Uneasy lies the heads of all that rule,
His worst of all whose kingdom is a school.
Supreme he sits; before the awful frown
That binds his brows the boldest eye goes down;
Not more submissive Israel heard and saw
At Sinai's foot the Giver of the Law.
Teaching
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: The School Boy
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It cannot be repeated too often that the safety of great wealth
with us lies in obedience to the new version of the Old World
axiom--Richesse oblige.
Wealth
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: A Moral Antipathy--Introduction
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Then there is that glorious Epicurean paradox, uttered by my
friend, the Historian in one of his flashing moments: "Give us
the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries."
Luxury
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (VI)
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Boston State-house is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't
pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation
straightened out for a crow-bar.
Boston
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (VI)
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No, my friends, I go (always other things being equal) for the
man that inherits family traditions and the cumulative humanities
of at least four or five generations.
Ancestry
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (ch. I)
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