Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. quotes - page 10
Those kind friends who suggest to a person suffering from a tedious complaint, that he "Had better try Homoeopathy," are apt to enforce their suggestion by adding, that "at any rate it can do no harm." This may or may not be true as regards the individual. But it always does very great harm to the community to encourage ignorance, error, or deception in a profession which deals with the life and health of our fellow-creatures.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
But to radiate the heat of the affections into a clod, which absorbs all that is poured into it, but never warms beneath the sunshine of smiles or the pressure of hand or lip,-this is the great martyrdom of sensitive beings,-most of all in that perpetual auto da fé where young womanhood is the sacrifice.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
One could never remember himself in eternity by the mere fact of having loved or hated any more than by that of having thirsted; love and hate have no more individuality in them than single waves in the ocean;-but the accidents or trivial marks which distinguished those whom we loved or hated make their memory our own forever, and with it that of our own personality also.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
I won't say, the more intellect, the less capacity for loving; for that would do wrong to the understanding and reason;-but, on the other hand, that the brain often runs away with the heart's best blood, which gives the world a few pages of wisdom or sentiment or poetry, instead of making one other heart happy, I have no question.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
