Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894 / 2008-06-14 00:00:00
EBOOK QUOTES FOR O. W. HOLMES ***
Produced by David Widger
QUOTES AND IMAGES FROM O. W. HOLMES, SR.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
Editor's Note
This is the physician and poet, not his son of the same name who was a
Supreme Court Justice and famous in his own right. Very early on Dr.
Holmes became my mentor and guide in the philosophy of medicine.
Though his world-wide fame was based on his prose and poetry, he was
an eminent leader in medicine. Many--too many years ago I would often
assign Holmes' "Medical Essays" to a medical student whose sharp edges
of science needed some rounding-off with a touch of humanity. I have no
longer the privilege of assigning anything to anybody, yet encourage any
of you, especially any who may be physicians, to read the thoughts of a
family doctor of the early 1800's.
A misprint kills a sensitive author
Absolute, peremptory facts are bullies
Advised every literary man to have a
profession.
Afraid of books who have not handled
them from infancy
Age and neglect united gradually
Agreed on certain ultimata of belief
Algebraic symbols of minds which have
grown too weak
All his geese are swans
All men are bores, except when we want
them
All men love all women
All the forms of moral excellence,
except truth
All want to reach old age and grumble
when they get it
And now we two are walking the long
path in peace together
Another privilege of talking is to
misquote
Arc in the movement of a large
intellect
As I understand truth
As to clever people's hating each other
As a child, he should have tumbled
about in a library
Asked Solon what made him dare to be so
obstinate
Assume a standard of judgment in our
own minds
At the mercy of every superior mind
Audacious self-esteem, with good ground
for it
Automatic and involuntary actions of
the mind
Babbage's calculating machine
Be very careful to whom you trust one
of these keys
Beautiful effects from wit,--all the
prismatic colors
Been in the same precise circumstances
before
Behave like men and gentlemen about it,
if you know how.
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