If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it around. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don’t embrace trouble; that’s as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say: meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it, and had better be on speaking terms with it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed)
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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed)
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
“The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,” Atlantic Monthly (1858-04)
(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)
The aim of the law is not to punish sins, but is to prevent certain external results.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 170 Mass. 18, 20 (1897)
People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more than those who try to be “consistent.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
The Professor at the Breakfast Table
Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Spurious)
Usually attributed to Holmes (or Abraham Lincoln, or John Stuart Mill), but actually first raised in legal commentary by Zechariah Chafee, "Freedom of Speech in Wartime", 32 Harvard Law Review 932, 957 (Jun 1919):Each side takes the position of the man who was arrested for swinging his arms and hitting another in the nose, and asked the judge if he did not have a right to swing his arms in a free country. “Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.”
There are earlier versions in non-legal contexts dating back decades earlier, often in arguments for Temperance and Prohibition. See here for more background.
Variants:
- "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins."
- "The right to swing my arms in any direction ends where your nose begins."
- "My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins."
One thing that humbles me deeply is to see that human genius has its limits while human stupidity does not.
[Une chose qui m’humilie profondément est de voir que le génie humain a des limites, quand la bêtise humaine n’en a pas.]
Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824-1895) French writer and dramatist
(Attributed)
(Source)
Earliest attribution is in the Great Universal Dictionary of the Nineteenth Century [Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIXe Siècle], Vol. 2, "Stupidity [Bêtise]" (c. 1865)
Attributed to a wide variety of individuals, including (spuriously) to Albert Einstein.
Variants:
- "What distresses me is to see that human genius has limitations, and human stupidity has none."
- "How despairing it is to see that human genius has limitations, while human stupidity has none."
- "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
- "Human genius has its limits, but stupidity does not."
- "Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped." (Elbert Hubbard, ed., The Philistine, title epigraph (Sep 1906)
See here for more discussion.
… [L]onging for certainty and for repose [is] in every human mind. But certainty generally is an illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“The Path of the Law,” Harvard Law Review (Feb 1897)
(Source)
Citation 10 Harvard Law Review 457 (1897).
The great act of faith is when man decides that he is not God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Letter to William James (24 Mar 1907)
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.
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
Over the Teacups, ch. 4 (1891)
A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.
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
The Guardian Angel
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.
Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
The Professor at the Breakfast Table (1859)
You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the win-loss record of the referee.
John H. Holcomb (b. 1930) American educational writer
The Militant Moderate
Every day you miss playing or practicing is one day longer it takes to be good.
Ben Hogan (1912-1957) American golfer
(Attributed)
I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.
Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989) American political activist
Revolution for the Hell of It (1968)
We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
“Thoughts of Eric Hoffer,” New York Times Magazine (25 Apr 1971)
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 176 (1955)
(Source)
No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our short-comings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)
Discontent is at the root of the creative process.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 6 (1963)
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 222 (1955)
(Source)
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor. There may even be a certain antagonism between love of humanity and love of neighbor; a low capacity for getting along with those near us often goes hand in hand with a high receptivity to the idea of the brotherhood of men.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change, ch. 11 “Brotherhood” (1963)
Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Reflections on the Human Condition, Section 50 (1973)
Intolerance is the “Do Not Disturb” sign on something that cannot bear touching. We do not mind having our hair ruffled, but we will not tolerate any familiarity with the toupee that covers our baldness.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
(Attributed)
Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Temper of Our Time (1967)
The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The Ordeal of Change
Some things have to be believed to be seen.
Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962) English poet
(Attributed)
If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled subordinates, then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.
Dee W. Hock (b. 1929) American businessman
“Unit of One Anniversary Handbook,” Fast Company (28 Feb 1997)
From the same it proceedeth that men give different names to one and the same thing from the difference of their own passions: as they that approve a private opinion call it opinion; but they that mislike it, heresy: and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion; but has only a greater tincture of choler.
Why should we refuse the happiness this hour gives us, because some other hour might take it away?
John Oliver Hobbes (1867-1906) American-English author [pseud. of Pearl Cragie]
A Bundle of Life (1894)
Full text.
Men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster which they call Destiny.
John Oliver Hobbes (1867-1906) American-English author [pseud. of Pearl Cragie]
The Sinner’s Comedy (1892)
Full text. Sometimes misquoted "a monster they call Destiny."
I am a strict vegetarian. That is, I consume no meat from carnivorous animals. Chicken, however, is simply a rapid form of corn, while cows are grass, reprocessed for our convenience.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Allan Hjerpe, RelHumor-L (4 Jan 1999)
Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
The Voice of Destruction: Hitler Speaks (quoted)
By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell — and hell heaven. The greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
Mein Kampf
The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
(Attributed)
What luck for rulers that men do not think.
Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) German leader
(Attributed)
We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
(Attributed)
Seeing a murder on television can help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
National Observer (15 Aug 1966)
There’s nothing to winning, really. That is, if you happen to be blessed with a keen eye, an agile mind, and no scruples whatsoever.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
(Attributed)
Television has brought back murder into the home
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
London Observer (quoted) (19 Dec. 1965)
Making a film means, first of all, to tell a story. … What is drama, after all, but life with the dull bits cut out?
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) English film director
In François Truffaut, Hitchcock, ch. 4 (1968)
Sometimes paraphrased as "Drama is life with the dull bits cut out."
To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.
Hippocrates (c. 460-c.377 BC) Greek physician
(Attributed)
Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
William E. "Bill" Vaughan (1915-1977) American columnist, humorist [pseud. Burton Hillis]
(Attributed)
There’s a mighty big difference between good, sound reasons and reasons that sound good.
William E. "Bill" Vaughan (1915-1977) American columnist, humorist [pseud. Burton Hillis]
(Attributed)
Last Saturday morning, I concluded that there is nothing harder to find than a bottle of pancake syrup reshelved six inches away from its accustomed spot.
William E. "Bill" Vaughan (1915-1977) American columnist, humorist [pseud. Burton Hillis]
(Attributed)
Life cannot be captured in a few axioms. And that is just what I keep trying to do. But it won’t work, for life is full of endless nuances and cannot be captured in just a few formulae.
Esther "Etty" Hillesum (1914-1943) Dutch Jewish law graduate, writer, diarist
Diary (1941-10-22)
(Source)
Collected in An Interrupted Life [Het Verstoorde Leven] (1981) [tr. Pomerans (1983)].
What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it.
[d’`alakh sani l’khaverkha la ta`avid. Zo hi kol hatora kulahh, v’idakh peirusha hu: zil g’mor]
The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a (Rabbi Hillel)
(Noted elsewhere as tractate Shabbat 30a.) See also the Bible, Matthew 7:12. Alt. Trans.: "What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow; this is the whole law. All the rest is a commentary to this law; go and learn it."
It is a glorious achievement to master one’s own temper.
Thomas Hill (1818-1891) American clergyman and educator
The Essential Book of Victorian Etiquette (1890)
It’s always your next move.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) American author, motivational writer
(Attributed)
Let never man be bold enough to say,
Thus, and no farther shall my passion stray:
The first crime, past, compels us into more,
And guilt grows fate, that was but choice, before.Aaron Hill (1685-1750) English poet and playwright
Athelwold, Act V
One difference between savagery and civilization is a little courtesy. There’s no telling what a lot of courtesy would do.
Cullen Hightower (1923-2008) American writer, aphorist, salesman.
(Attributed)
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating or complex — but Congress can.
Cullen Hightower (1923-2008) American writer, aphorist, salesman.
(Attributed)