Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Old age is fifteen years older than I am.”

“Have the courage to act instead of react.”

“The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.”

“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?”

“Beware how you take away hope from another human being.”

“If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.”

“Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.”

“I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team!”

“The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how to make facts live.”

“Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.”

“Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel.”

“It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”

“Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.”

“Truth, when not sought after, rarely comes to light.”

“The Amen of nature is always a flower.”

“Alas for those that never sing, But die with all their music in them!”

“Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.”

“I hate facts. I always say the chief end of man is to form general propositions - adding that no general proposition is worth a d--n.”

“Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.”

“The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.”

“A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.”

“It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.”

“If I were dying my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end.”

“But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.”