45 Motivational Oliver Wendell Holmes Quotes For Success

Oliver Wendell Holmes was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. A member of the Fireside Poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the “Breakfast-Table” series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. This Oliver Wendell Holmes quotes will motivate you.

Best Oliver Wendell Holmes Quotes

1. To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
2. Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
3. Beware how you take away hope from any human being. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
4. Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother’s secret hope outlives them all. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
5. To be seventy years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
6. Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

7. Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

8. Learn the sweet magic of a cheerful face. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
9. Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
10. Have the courage to act instead of reacting. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Oliver Wendell Holmes quotes on courage
11. 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. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
12. A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
13. We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were early implanted in his imagination; no matter how utterly his reason may reject them… ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
14. Death tugs at my ear and says, ‘Live. I am coming. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

15. The best servant does his work unseen. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

16. Truth, when not sought after, rarely comes to light. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
17. Whatever comes from the brain carries the hue of the place it came from, and whatever comes from the heart carries the heat and color of its birthplace. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
18. Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
19. 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 Sr.
20. Why can’t somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says, and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks? ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
21. “And if I should live to be
    The last leaf upon the tree
    In the spring,
    Let them smile, as I do now,
    At the old forsaken bough
    Where I cling.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
22. The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
23. The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
24. When men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe… that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas– that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment. As all life is an experiment. Every year if not every day we wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

25. Don’t be ‘consistent,’ but be simply true. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

26. It’s faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
27. I like children; I like ’em, and I respect ’em. Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by them. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
28. The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men – from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
29. For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn’t give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
30. It is a good plan to have a book with you in all places and at all times. If you are presently without, hurry without delay to the nearest shop and buy one of mine. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Quotes

31. A child’s education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

32. 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. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
33. Stillness of person and steadiness of features are signal marks of good breeding. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
34. What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred? ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
35. Man has his will, but woman has her way. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Oliver Wendell Holmes quotes on woman
36. Leverage is everything-don’t begin to pry until you’ve got the long arm on your side. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
37. You may have genius. The contrary is, of course, probable. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
38. Science is the topography of ignorance. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
39. Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
40. 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. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
41. To obtain a man’s opinion of you, make him mad. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
42. I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
43. It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
44. Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
45. Stupidity often saves a man from going mad. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

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