A man's opinions are generally of much more value than his arguments. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. More Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. More Quotes From Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Go on, fair Science; soon to thee Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. yieldnaturescience Knowledge-it excites prejudices to call it science-is advancing as irresistibly, as majestically, as remorselessly as the ocean moves in upon the shore. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. oceanknowledgemoving The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the center of each and every town or city. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. axestownscities Poverty comes pleading not for charity, for the most part, but imploring us to find a purchaser for its unmarketable wares. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. pleadingpovertycharity In order to know whether a human being is young or old, offer it food of different kinds at short intervals. If young, it will eat anything at any hour of the day or night. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. teenagersarcasticinspirational For I say unto you in all sadness of conviction that to think great thoughts you must be heroes as well as idealists. Only when you have worked alone -- when you have felt around you are a black gulf of solitude more isolating than that which surrounds the dying man, and in hope and despair have trusted to your own unshaken will -- then only can you gain the secret isolated joy of the thinker, who knows that a hundred years after he is dead and forgotten men who have never heard of him will be moving to the measure of his thought -- the subtle rapture of postponed power, which the world knows not because it has no external trappings, but which to his prophetic vision is more real than that which commands an army. And if this joy should not be yours, still it is only thus you can know that you have done what lay in you to do -- can say that you have lived, and be ready for the end. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Life is action and passion; therefore, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of the time, at peril of being judged not to have lived. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Most of the things we do, we do for no better reason than that our father's have done them or our neighbors do them, and the same is true of a large part than what we suspect of what we think. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Why people need to get fucked, if they can fuck themselves by turning on TV Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. With all humility, I think, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Infinitely more important than the vain attempt to love one's neighbor as one's self. If you want to hit a bird on the wing, you must have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself, and equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbor: you must be living in your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. When in doubt, do it. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. when-in-doubtdoubt Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. legalgreatsmoketime Beware how you take away hope from another human being. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. human-beingbeingyouhope The rules of evidence in the main are based on experience, logic, and common sense, less hampered by history than some parts of the substantive law. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. rulesexperiencelawhistory Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. testbeenthingscertainty A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. moremanmoneyprinciples The rule of joy and the law of duty seem to me all one. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. medutylawjoy The great act of faith is when a man decides he is not God. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. greatmanfaithgod
