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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Ah, pensive scholar, what is fame?
A fitful tongue of leaping flame;
A giddy whirlwind's fickle gust,
That lifts a pinch of mortal dust;
A few swift years, and who can show
Which dust was Bill, and which was Joe?
Students
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Poems of the Class of '29--Bill and Joe (st. 7)
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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."
Paradoxes
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (VI)
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Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky:
Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die!
Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel,
The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal!
Unity
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Brother Jonathan's Lament for Sister Caroline
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Little I ask; my wants are few;
I only wish a hut of stone
(A very plain brown stone will do),
That I may call my own;
And close at hand is such a one
In yonder street that fronts the sun.
Wishes
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Contentment
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I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica could be sunk
to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind
and all the worse for the fishes.
Medicine
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Lecture before the Harvard Medical School
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There are three wicks you know to the lamp of a man's life:
brain, blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light
goes out, followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute,
and out go all three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the
lungs, and presently the fluid ceases to supply the other centres
of flame, and all is soon stagnation, cold, and darkness.
Health
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Professor at the Breakfast Table (XI)
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Stop not, unthinking, every friend you meet
To spin your wordy fabric in the street;
While you are emptying your colloquial pack,
The fiend Lumbago jumps upon his back.
Talk
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Urania--A Rhymed Lesson, l. 439
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There are a good many real miseries in life that we cannot help
smiling at, but they are the smiles that make wrinkles and not
dimples.
Misery
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Poet at the Breakfast Table (III)
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Sweet shadows of twilight! how calm their repose,
While the dewdrops fall soft in the breast of the rose!
How blest to the toiler his hour of release
When the vesper is heard with its whisper of peace!
Twilight
Quotes, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , Source: Poems of the Class of '29--Our Banker (st. 12)
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