WIST Quotations

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-11), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:52:51 +0000

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1857-11), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 1 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Talking is like playing on the harp; there is as much in laying the hand on the strings to stop their vibrations as in twanging them to bring out their music.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 1 (1858)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:56:16 +0000

A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:18:17 +0000

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called “facts.” They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:28:37 +0000

Even in common people, conceit has the virtue of making them cheerful; the man who thinks his wife, his baby, his house, his horse, his dog, and himself severally unequalled, is almost sure to be a good-humored person, though liable to be tedious at times.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 1 (1858)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:17:24 +0000

You can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove anything that you want to prove.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 18:17:11 +0000

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.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-12), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 22:09:59 +0000

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1857-12), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 2 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-12), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:52:22 +0000

A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1857-12), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 2 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1857-12), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:16:08 +0000

Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-01), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 16:41:44 +0000

But remember that talking is one of the fine arts — the noblest, the most important, the most difficult — and its fluent harmonies may be spoiled by the intrusion of a single harsh note. Therefore conversation which is suggestive rather than argumentative, which lets out the most of each talker’s results of thought, is commonly the pleasantest and the most profitable.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-01), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 3 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-01), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 15:43:19 +0000

I never saw an author in my life — saving perhaps one — that did not purr as audibly as a full-grown domestic cat on having his fur smoothed the right way by a skillful hand.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-01), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 16:29:15 +0000

Don’t flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-02), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I find 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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-02), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 4 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-03), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 20:54:30 +0000

Don’t ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever were there, they are there still!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-03), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 5 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 21:54:41 +0000

Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fit them all.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 6 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 21:34:44 +0000

I won’t say, the more intellect, the less capacity for loving; for that would do wrong to the understanding and reason; — but, on the other hand, that the brain often runs away with the heart’s best blood, which gives the world a few pages of wisdom or sentiment or poetry, instead of making one other heart happy, I have no question.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 22:22:49 +0000

I will tell you my rule. Talk about those subjects you have had long in your mind, and listen to what others say about subjects you have studied but recently. Knowledge and timber shouldn’t be much used till they are seasoned.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-04), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 19:25:38 +0000

The world’s great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor great scholars great men.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-04), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I made a comparison at table some time since, which has often been quoted, and received many compliments. It was that of the mind of a bigot to the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-04), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Often trimmed/paraphrased to "The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract." Frequently misattributed to his son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The Autocrat himself correctly comments that a similar phrase appears in Thomas Moore, Preface to the poems "Corruption" and "Intolerance":

The minds of some of our statesmen, like the pupil of the human eye, contract themselves the more the stronger light there is shed upon them.

The Autocrat goes on to note, "When a person of fair character for literary honesty uses an image such as another has employed before him, the presumption is, that he has struck upon it independently, or unconsciously recalled it, supposing it his own."

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 6 (1858)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-05), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 21:49:12 +0000

PROFESSOR: What message do people generally send back when you first call on them?

OLD AGE: Not at home. Then I leave a card and go. Next year I call; get the same answer; leave another card. So for five or six, — sometimes ten years or more. At last, if they don’t let me in, I break in through the front door or the windows.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-05), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 7 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-05), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 18:48:17 +0000

Then Old Age said again, — Come, let us walk down the street together, — and offered me a cane, an eyeglass, a tippet, and a pair of over-shoes. — No, much obliged to you, said I. I don’t want those things, and I had a little rather talk with you here, privately, in my study. So I dressed myself up in a jaunty way and walked out alone; — got a fall, caught a cold, was laid up with a lumbago, and had time to think over this whole matter.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-05), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” “Explicit Allegoria Senectutis,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 22:48:22 +0000

The buttonwood throws off its bark in large flakes, which one may find lying at its foot, pushed out, and at last pushed off, by that tranquil movement from beneath, which is too slow to be seen, but too powerful to be arrested. One finds them always, but one rarely sees them fall. So it is our youth drops from us, — scales off, sapless and lifeless, and lays bare the tender and immature fresh growth of old age. Looked at collectively, the changes of old age appear as a series of personal insults and indignities, terminating at last in death.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-05), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” “Explicit Allegoria Senectutis,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 7 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-05), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-05), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. _ (1858)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-05), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 23 May 2023 20:49:45 +0000

OLD AGE: I make it a rule never to force myself upon a person’s recognition until I have known him at least five years.

PROFESSOR: Do you mean to say that you have known me so long as that?

OLD AGE: I do. I left my card on you longer ago than that, but I am afraid you never read it; yet I see you have it with you.

PROFESSOR: Where?

OLD AGE: There, between your eyebrows, — three straight lines running up and down; all the probate courts know that token, — “Old Age, his mark.” Put your forefinger on the inner end of one eyebrow, and your middle finger on the inner end of the other eyebrow; now separate the fingers, and you will smooth out my sign-manual; that’s the way you used to look before I left my card on you.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-09), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 13:21:33 +0000

Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-09), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 11 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-10), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:42:28 +0000

Memory is a net; one finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook; but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-10), “Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 12 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-10), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:31:49 +0000

You may set it down as a truth which admits of few exceptions, that those who ask your opinion really want your praise, and will be contented with nothing less.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1858-10), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 12 (1858)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1858-10), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:33:43 +0000

You long to “leap at a single bound into celebrity.” 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!”

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-01), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:26:33 +0000

Nobody talks much that does n’t say unwise things, — things he did not mean to say; as no person plays much without striking a false note sometimes. Talk, to me, is only spading up the ground for crops of thought. I can’t answer for what will turn up.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-01), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 1 (1859).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-02), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:33:45 +0000

The longer I live, the more I am satisfied of two things: first, that the truest lives are those that are cut rose-diamond-fashion, with many facets answering to the many-planed aspects of the world about them; secondly, that society is always trying in some way or other to grind us down to a single flat surface.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-02), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 2 (1859).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-05), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-05), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 5 (1859).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-05), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:47:38 +0000

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day, like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-05), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:19:48 +0000

Humility is the first of the virtues — for other people.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-05), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 19:23:11 +0000

Of a hundred people of each of the different leading religious sects, about the same proportion will be safe and pleasant persons to deal and to live with.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-06), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:50:21 +0000

Why can’t somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says, and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-06), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 6 (1859).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-06), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 13:01:21 +0000

Apologizing. — A very desperate habit, — one that is rarely cured. Apology is only egotism wrong side out. Nine times out of ten, the first thing a man’s companion knows of his shortcoming is from his apology. It is mighty presumptuous on your part to suppose your small failures of so much consequence that you must make a talk about them.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-10), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 03 Mar 2025 21:09:35 +0000

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-10), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 10 (1859).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-11), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:10:05 +0000

The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-11), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 11 (1859).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-11), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 13:36:41 +0000

The correlative to loving our neighbors as ourselves is hating ourselves as we hate our neighbors.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-11), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 17:22:30 +0000

Most persons have died before they expire — died to all earthly longings, so that the last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the doors of the already deserted mansion.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-11), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Sometimes misquoted as "Many persons ...."

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 11 (1859).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1860-01), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 2, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 27

Dave — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:15:44 +0000

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the World, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1860-01), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 2, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 27
(Source)

Originally serialized as “The Professor’s Story,” but collected as the novel Elsie Venner, ch. 2 (1861).

Often misattributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1860-08), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 16 [The Professor], Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 34

Dave — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:45:01 +0000

Treat bad men exactly as if they were insane. They are in-sane, out of health, morally. Reason, which is food to sound minds, is not tolerated, still less assimilated, unless administered with the greatest caution; perhaps, not at all. Avoid collision with them, so far as you honorably can; keep your temper, if you can, — for one angry man is as good as another; restrain them from violence, promptly, completely, and with the least possible injury, just as in the case of maniacs, — and when you have got rid of them, or got them tied hand and foot so that they can do no mischief, sit down and contemplate them charitably, remembering that nine tenths of their perversity comes from outside influences, drunken ancestors, abuse in childhood, bad company, from which you have happily been preserved, and for some of which you, as a member of society, may be fractionally responsible.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1860-08), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 16 [The Professor], Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 34
(Source)

Originally serialized as “The Professor’s Story,” but collected as the novel Elsie Venner, ch. 16 (1861).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1860-08), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 16, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 34

Dave — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 15:52:03 +0000

Leverage is everything, — was what I used to say; — don’t begin to pry till you have got the long arm on your side.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1860-08), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 16, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 34
(Source)

Originally serialized as “The Professor’s Story,” but collected as the novel Elsie Venner, ch. 16 (1861).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1860-09), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 18, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 35

Dave — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:25:41 +0000

If a man has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of his liberty, if he is really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop him. And the temptation is to some natures a very great one.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1860-09), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 18, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 35
(Source)

Originally serialized as “The Professor’s Story,” but collected as the novel Elsie Venner, ch. 18 (1861).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1860-09), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 18, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 35

Dave — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 19:39:01 +0000

Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves that necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded. In common life we shirk it by forming habits, which take the place of self-determination. In politics party-organization saves us the pains of much thinking before deciding how to cast our vote. In religious matters there are great multitudes watching us perpetually, each propagandist ready with his bundle of finalities, which having accepted we may be at peace. The more absolute the submission demanded, the stronger the temptation becomes to those who have been long tossed among doubts and conflicts.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1860-09), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 18, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 35

Dave — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 16:24:04 +0000

The boldest thinker may have his moments of languor and discouragement, when he feels as if he could willingly exchange faiths with the old beldame crossing herself at the cathedral-door, — nay, that, if he could drop all coherent thought, and lie in the flowery meadow with the brown-eyed solemnly unthinking cattle, looking up to the sky, and all their simple consciousness staining itself blue, then down to the grass, and life turning to a mere greenness, blended with confused scents of herbs, — no individual mind-movement such as men are teased with, but the great calm cattle-sense of all time and all places that know the milky smell of herds, — if he could be like these, he would be content to be driven home by the cow-boy, and share the grassy banquet of the king of ancient Babylon. Let us be very generous, then, in our judgment of those who leave the front ranks of thought for the company of the meek non-combatants who follow with the baggage and provisions. Age, illness, too much wear and tear, a half-formed paralysis, may bring any of us to this pass.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1861-04), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 30, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 42

Dave — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 16:12:20 +0000

Beliefs must be lived in for a good while, before they accommodate themselves to the soul’s wants, and wear loose enough to be comfortable.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1861-04), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 30, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 42
(Source)

Originally serialized as “The Professor’s Story,” but collected as the novel Elsie Venner, ch. 30 (1861).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1861-04), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 32, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 42

Dave — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 16:43:47 +0000

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1861-04), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 32, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 42
(Source)

Originally serialized as “The Professor’s Story,” but collected as the novel Elsie Venner, ch. 32 (1861).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1867-01), “The Guardian Angel,” ch. 2 “Great Excitement”, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 91

Dave — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:25:52 +0000

A man over ninety is a great comfort to all his elderly neighbors; he is a picket-guard at the extreme outpost; and the young folks of sixty and seventy feel that the enemy must get by him before he can come near their camp.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1867-01), “The Guardian Angel,” ch. 2 “Great Excitement”, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 91
(Source)

Collected in The Guardian Angel, ch. 2 (1867).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1867-01), “The Guardian Angel,” ch. 3 “Antecedents,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 91

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is by no means certain that our individual personality is the single inhabitant of these our corporeal frames […] We all do things both awake and asleep which surprise us. Perhaps we have cotenants in this house we live in.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1867-01), “The Guardian Angel,” ch. 3 “Antecedents,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 91
(Source)

Collected in The Guardian Angel, ch. 3 (1867).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1872-01), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:32:01 +0000

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1872-01), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 1 (1872).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1872-05), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:17:40 +0000

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, which are just as much used for idols as promissory notes are used for values.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1872-05), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 5 (1872).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1872-10), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 19:40:48 +0000

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1872-10), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 10 (1872).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1872-11), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 19:12:21 +0000

A sick man that gets talking about himself, a woman that gets talking about her baby, and an author that begins reading out of his own book, never know when to stop.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1872-11), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 11 (1872).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1872-12), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:44:17 +0000

We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were early implanted in his imagination; no matter how utterly his reason may reject them, he will still feel as the famous woman did about ghosts, Je ne crois pas, mais je les crains, — “I don’t believe in them, but I am afraid of them, nevertheless.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1872-12), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 12 (1872).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1890-01), “Over the Teacups,” No. 2, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65

Dave — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 16:14:54 +0000

Old age is like an opium-dream. Nothing seems real except what is unreal.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1890-01), “Over the Teacups,” No. 2, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65
(Source)

Collected in Over the Teacups, ch. 2 (1891)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1890-03), “Over the Teacups,” No. 4, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is the peculiarity of the bore that he is the last person to find himself out.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1890-03), “Over the Teacups,” No. 4, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65
(Source)

Collected in Over the Teacups, ch. 4 (1891).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65

Dave — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 01:43:06 +0000

What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65
(Source)

Collected in Over the Teacups, ch. 7 (1891).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 66

Dave — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:10:46 +0000

That is what you have to expect if you invent anything that puts an old machine out of fashion, or solve a problem that has puzzled all the world up to your time. There never was a religion founded but its Messiah was called a crank. There never was an idea started that woke up men out of their stupid indifference but its originator was spoken of as a crank.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 66
(Source)

Collected in Over the Teacups, ch. 7 (1891).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Lecture (1842), “Homœopathy and Its Kindred Delusions,” Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge

Dave — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 18:39:40 +0000

So long as the body is affected through the mind, no audacious device, even of the most manifestly dishonest character, can fail of producing occasional good to those who yield it an implicit or even a partial faith.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Lecture (1842), “Homœopathy and Its Kindred Delusions,” Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
(Source)

Collected in Medical Essays, 1842-1882, ch. 1 (1891 ed.).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Lecture (1867-11-06), “Scholastic and Bedside Training,” Introductory Lecture, Harvard University School of Medicine

Dave — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 18:06:55 +0000

I would never use a long word, even, where a short one would answer the purpose. I know there are professors in this country who ‘ligate’ arteries. Other surgeons only tie them, and it stops the bleeding just as well.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Lecture (1867-11-06), “Scholastic and Bedside Training,” Introductory Lecture, Harvard University School of Medicine
(Source)

Collected in his Medical Essays 1842-1882 (1891).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Letter (1882-03-18) to James Russell Lowell

Dave — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:50:59 +0000

I have always considered my face a convenience rather than an ornament.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Letter (1882-03-18) to James Russell Lowell
(Source)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Poem (1848), “A Sun-Day Hymn,” st. 5

Dave — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:15:20 +0000

Grant us Thy truth to make us free,
And kindling hearts that burn for Thee,
Till all Thy living altars claim
One holy light, one heav’nly flame.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Poem (1848), “A Sun-Day Hymn,” st. 5
(Source)

Best remembered today as a hymn, usually set to Virgil C. Taylor's "Louvan" (1850) or other tunes. Also known (from its first line) as "Lord of All Being [Throned Afar]". This is the concluding verse/stanza.

First published in Atlantic Monthly (1859-12) at the end of the last installment of his Professor at the Breakfast Table, where he prefaces it:

Peace to all such as may have been vexed in spirit by any utterance these pages have repeated! They will, doubtless, forget for the moment the difference in the hues of truth we look at through our human prisms, and join in singing (inwardly) this hymn to the Source of the light we all need to lead us, and the warmth which alone can make us all brothers.

It was collected, as a poem, in his The Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1863).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Poem (1858-01-18), “The Voiceless,” ll. 7-8.

Dave — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 16:36:36 +0000

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Poem (1858-01-18), “The Voiceless,” ll. 7-8.
(Source)

First read by Holmes (according to Longfellow) at a dinner that date of the Harvard Musical Association. Included in the 1858-10 installment of "Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" (Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 5), and the collected Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 12 (1858). First published as poetry in Songs in Many Keys (1862).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Poem (1858-09), “The Deacon’s Masterpiece,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 4

Dave — Mon, 09 Mar 2015 13:54:19 +0000

Little of all we value here
Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year
Without both feeling and looking queer.
In fact, there’s nothing that keeps its youth,
So far as I know, but a tree and truth.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Poem (1858-09), “The Deacon’s Masterpiece,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 4
(Source)

The poem appears in the middle of an installment of "Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table", collected in Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 11 (1858).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Poem (1858) “Contentment,” st. 3

Dave — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:52:25 +0000

I only ask that Fortune send
A little more than I shall spend.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Poem (1858) “Contentment,” st. 3
(Source)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Poem (1861), “The Old Player” (closing lines), Songs in Many Keys (1862)

Dave — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 17:20:43 +0000

Dream on! Though Heaven may woo our open eyes,
Through their closed lids we look on fairer skies;
Truth is for other worlds, and hope for this;
The cheating future lends the present’s bliss;
Life is a running shade, with fettered hands,
That chases phantoms over shifting sands;
Death a still spectre on a marble seat,
With ever clutching palms and shackled feet;
The airy shapes that mock life’s slender chain,
The flying joys he strives to clasp in vain,
Death only grasps; to live is to pursue, —
Dream on! there’s nothing but illusion true!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Poem (1861), “The Old Player” (closing lines), Songs in Many Keys (1862)
(Source)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Reply to an invitation from Maud Howe to Julia Ward Howe’s birthday (1889-05-27)

Dave — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 12:17:20 +0000

To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Reply to an invitation from Maud Howe to Julia Ward Howe’s birthday (1889-05-27)

This is the long form version of the quotation, today usually rendered, "It is better to be seventy years young than forty years old."

Other variants:

To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful than to be forty years old.
To feel seventy years young is far more cheerful than to feel forty years old.
It is possible to be seventy years young, instead of forty years old.

The first references to this quotation are within the first few months of the event, which argues for its authenticity, including The Unitarian Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 7 (1889-07) and even newspaper blurbs, e.g., 1889-05-30. This last has a more expanded quotation:

As for your mothers's age, I am bound to believe her own story, but I can only say that to be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

In a 1910 obituary article for Howe, the story and the full quote are again given.

Howe and Holmes (who was eighty when he gave this) were good friends, and Howe and her daughter Laura frequently visited the elder poet. In Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, ch. 23 (1915), a biography of Howe by Laura and another daughter, Maud, it expands the anecdote:

The seventieth birthday was a great festival. Maud, inviting Oliver Wendell Holmes to the party, had written, "Mamma will be seventy years young on the 27th, Come and play with her!"
The Doctor in his reply said, "It is better to be seventy years young than forty years old!"

Note that uses the short form, and give at least partial credit to the phrase to Maud.

References to the quotation, or even just to "seventy years young" (crediting it to Holmes) are common in the 1890s (e.g., 1890, 1892, 1894, 1899) and into the new millennium . Emily Bishop titled her 1907 self-help book, The Road to "Seventy Years Young"; or The Unhabitual Way after this phrase (which she used as the epigraph on the title page; ironically, she died in 1916 at age 58). Its appearance (in short form) in Howe's 1915 biography, and (in long form) in the 1919 Bartlett's were at its peak popularity.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Speech (1859-03-10), Valedictory Address, Harvard University School of Medicine

Dave — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 19:43:49 +0000

You can never be too cautious in your prognosis, in the view of the great uncertainty of the course of any disease not long watched, and the many unexpected turns it may take.
I think I am not the first to utter the following caution : —
Beware how you take away hope from any human being. Nothing is clearer than that the merciful Creator intends to blind most people as they pass down into the dark valley. Without very good reasons, temporal or spiritual, we should not interfere with his kind arrangements. It is the height of cruelty and the extreme of impertinence to tell your patient he must die, except you are sure that he wishes to know it, or that there is some particular cause for his knowing it. I should be especially unwilling to tell a child that it could not recover; if the theologians think it necessary, let them take the responsibility. God leads it by the hand to the edge of the precipice in happy unconsciousness, and I would not open its eyes to what he wisely conceals.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Speech (1859-03-10), Valedictory Address, Harvard University School of Medicine
(Source)

Sometimes paraphrased, "Beware how you take away hope from another human being."

Collected in The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 58, No. 8 (1858-03-25).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Speech (1870-06-29), “Mechanism in Thought and Morals,” Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard University

Dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:12:00 +0000

I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether, with the determination to put on record, at the earliest moment of regaining consciousness, the thought I should find uppermost in my mind. The mighty music of the triumphal march into nothingness reverberated through my brain, and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities, which made me an archangel for the moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth which underlies all human experience, and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear: a few words had lifted my intelligence to the level of the knowledge of the cherubim. As my natural condition returned, I remembered my resolution; and, staggering to my desk, I wrote, in ill-shaped straggling letters, the all-embracing truth still glimmering in my consciousness. The words were these (children may smile; the wise will ponder): “A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Speech (1870-06-29), “Mechanism in Thought and Morals,” Phi Beta Kappa Society, Harvard University
(Source)