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973 quotes from 439 people

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It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.
JHJohn Andrew Holmes
The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935
To have doubted one’s own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935“Ideals and Doubts”, 10 Illinois Law Rev 3 (1915).
The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935
Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935The Path of the Law (1897)
There is in all men a demand for the superlative, so much so that the poor devil who has no other way of reaching it attains it by getting drunk.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935“Natural Law”, 32 Harvard Law Review 40, 41 (1918)
The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.1809–1894The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858).
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.1809–1894
Build thee more stately mansions, my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.1809–1894The Chambered Nautilus (1858)In context
- Change
- Inspiration
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.
JHJiao Hong1540–1620Often credited to Confucius
Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, “We’ve always done it this way.” I try to fight that. That’s why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise.
Grace Hopper1906–1992The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper (1987)
- Change
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
Robert E. Howard1906–1936“The Tower of the Elephant” (1933)
To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915
One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard (1911), p. 151
- Technology
Positive anything is better than negative nothing.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915