82 Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground-floor. But if a man hasn't got plenty of good common sense, the more science he has, the worse for his patient.

The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does not know what to do with genius.

Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer.

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

Fresh air is good if you do not take too much of it; most of the achievements and pleasures of life are in bad air.

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.

Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.

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