Oliver Wendell Holmes

Famous quotes containing the words oliver wendell holmes, wendell holmes, oliver wendell, oliver and/or wendell:

    People who make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    Writing or printing is like shooting with a rifle; you may hit your reader’s mind, or miss it;Mbut talking is like playing at a mark with the pipe of an engine; if it is within reach, and you have time enough, you can’t help hitting it.
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    The advice of their elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935)

    My grandmother stood among her kettles and ladles.
    Smiling, in faulty grammar,
    She praised my fortune and urged my lofty career.
    So to please her I studied—but I will remember always
    How she poured confusion out, how she cooled and labeled
    All the wild sauces of the brimming year.
    —Mary Oliver (b. 1935)

    And silence, like a poultice, comes
    To heal the blows of sound.
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)