Oliver Wendell Holmes Quotes

Oliver Wendell Holmes Biography
Type: Writer
Nationality: American
Born: August 29, 1809
Died: October 8, 1894

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, professor, lecturer, and author. Regarded by his peers as one of the best writers of the 19th century, he is considered a member of the Fireside Poets. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He is recognized as an important medical reformer.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Holmes was educated at Phillips Academy and Harvard College. After graduating from Harvard in 1829, he briefly studied law before turning to the medical profession. He began writing poetry at an early age; one of his most famous works, "Old Ironsides", was published in 1830. Following training at the prestigious medical schools of Paris, Holmes was granted his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1836. He taught at Dartmouth Medical School before returning to teach at Harvard and, for a time, served as dean there. During his long professorship, he became an advocate for various medical reforms and notably posited the controversial idea that doctors were capable of carrying puerperal fever from patient to patient. Holmes retired from Harvard in 1882 and continued writing poetry, novels and essays until his death in 1894.

Surrounded by Boston's literary elite—which included friends such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and James Russell Lowell—Holmes made an indelible imprint on the literary world of the 19th century. Many of his works were published in The Atlantic Monthly, a magazine that he named. For his literary achievements and other accomplishments, he was awarded numerous honorary degrees from universities around the world. Holmes's writing often commemorated his native Boston area, and much of it was meant to be humorous or conversational. Some of his medical writings, notably his 1843 essay regarding the contagiousness of puerperal fever, were considered innovative for their time. He was often called upon to issue occasional poetry, or poems written specifically for an event, including many occasions at Harvard. Holmes also popularized several terms, including "Boston Brahmin" and "anesthesia".

A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them: Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music in them!
Oliver Wendell Holmes

A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

A great calamity is as old as the trilobites an hour after it has happened.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

A new untruth is better than an old truth.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

A person is always startled when he hears himself called old for the first time.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Apology is only egotism wrong side out.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse. One comfort we have - Cincinnati sounds worse.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Do not be bullied out of your common sense by the specialist; two to one, he is a pedant.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Don't be "consistent" but be simple true.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

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

Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Every calling is great when greatly pursued.
Oliver Wendell Holmes