"I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me"
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
"Every library should try to complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads."
"I have never heard anyone profess indifference to a boat race. Why should you row a boat race? Why endure long months of pain in preparation of a fierce half hour, or even six minutes, that will leave..."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
"My experience with public libraries is that the first volume of the book I inquire for is out, unless I happen to want the second, when that is out."
"You commit a sin of omission if you do not utilize all the power that is within you. All men have claims on man and to the man with special talents this is a very special claim. It is required that ..."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."
"I confess that altruistic and cynically selfish talk seem to me about equally unreal. With all humility I think 'whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might ' infinitely more important th..."
"The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books."
"The riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voice of friends and to say to one's s..."
"An older author is constantly rediscovering himself in the more or less fossilized productions of his earlier years."