Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall."

"There is no friend like an old friend who has shared our morning days, no greeting like his welcome, no homage like his praise."

"Don't flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become."

"Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good."

"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."

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

"Love prefers twilight to daylight."

"Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing."

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

"I hate facts. I always say the chief end of man is to form general propositions - adding that no general proposition is worth a damn."

"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening."

"The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions."

"The Amen of nature is always a flower."

"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."