Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

    O, better that her shattered hulk
    Should sink beneath the wave;
    Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
    And there should be her grave;
    Nail to the mast her holy flag,
    Set every threadbare sail,
    And give her to the god of storms,
    The lightning and the gale!
    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    Don’t you stay at home of evenings?
    Don’t you love a cushioned seat
    In a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)

    Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.
    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)

    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)