266 Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes

I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.

The degree of civilization which a people has reached, no doubt, is marked by their anxiety to do as they would be done by

With all humility, I think, ''Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.'' Infinitely more important than the vain attempt to love one's neighbor as one's self. If you want to hit a bird on the wing, you must have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself, and equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbor: you must be living in your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing.

To be seventy years young is sometimes for more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.

Beware how you take away hope from any human being.

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.

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it

And when you stick on conversation's burrs, don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.