A biography for Oliver Wendell Holmeshasn’t been written yet.
“The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.”
“Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.”
“The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.”
“To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.”
“A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend.”
“Don't you stay at home of evenings? Don't you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?”
“The Amen of nature is always a flower.”
“To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.”
“It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.”
“Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.”
“Love prefers twilight to daylight.”
“Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end.”
“There is no friend like an old friend who has shared our morning days, no greeting like his welcome, no homage like his praise.”
“A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.”
“Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear.”
“Apology is only egotism wrong side out.”
“Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.”
“Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.”
“If I were dying, my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end.”
“The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power.”