Quotes

Memory is a net; one finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook; but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used, till they are seasoned. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. Good mental machinery ought to break its own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among them suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse their motion. A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. You can hire logic, in the shape of a lawyer, to prove anything that you want to prove. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Now habit is a labor-saving invention which enables a man to get along with less fuel,--that is all; for fuel is force. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. I try his head occasionally as housewives try eggs,-- give it an intellectual shake and hold it up to the light, so to speak, to see if it has life in it, actual or potential, or only contains lifeless albumen. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Don't ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever WERE there, they ARE there still! ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Even in common people, conceit has the virtue of making them cheerful; the man who thinks his wife, his baby, his house, his horse, his dog, and himself severally unequalled, is almost sure to be a good-humored person, though liable to be tedious at times. ~ The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Men are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if you don't make it of wood, you must make it of words. ~ The Poet at the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. ~ The Poet at the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.