Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. quotes - page 5

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. It is in their hearts that the "sentimental" religion some people are so fond of sneering at has its source. The sentiment of love, the sentiment of maternity, the sentiment of the paramount obligation of the parent to the child as having called it into existence, enhanced just in proportion to the power and knowledge of the one and the weakness and ignorance of the other, - these are the "sentiments" that have kept our soulless systems from driving men off to die in holes like those that riddle the sides of the hill opposite the Monastery of St. Saba, where the miserable victims of a falsely-interpreted religion starved and withered in their delusion. (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.)
So from the heights of Will Life's parting stream descends, And, as a moment turns its slender rill, Each widening torrent bends,From the same cradle's side, From the same mother's knee, -One to long darkness and the frozen tide, One to the Peaceful Sea! View quote
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Most persons have died before they expire, - died to all earthly longings, so that the last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already deserted mansion. View quote
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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, he will still feel as the famous woman did about ghosts, Je n'y crois pas, mais je les crains,-"I don't believe in them, but I am afraid of them, nevertheless". View quote
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.