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)

    What I call a good patient is one who, having found a good physician, sticks to him till he dies.
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more rarely than those who try to be “consistent.”
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    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)

    Have you heard of the wonderful one-hoss shay,
    That was built in such a logical way
    It ran a hundred years to a day,
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)