To be civilized is to be potentially master of all possible ideas, and that means that one has got beyond being shocked, although one preserves one's own moral aesthetic preferences.

Quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Topics: Oliver Wendell Holmes Quotes

Life is a great bundle of little things.

Life is a great bundle of little things.

Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.

Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our...

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our...

Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility;...

Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility;...

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its...

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its...

A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend.

A goose flies by a chart which the Royal Geographical Society could not mend.

If a hug represented how much I loved you, I would hold you in my...

If a hug represented how much I loved you, I would hold you in my...

It is very lonely sometimes, trying to play God.

It is very lonely sometimes, trying to play God.

Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It...

Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It...

Happiness consists in activity. It is running steam, not a stagnant pool.

Happiness consists in activity. It is running steam, not a stagnant pool.

There is no time like the old time, when you and I were young!

There is no time like the old time, when you and I were young!

Pretty much all the honest truth telling there is in the world is done by...

Pretty much all the honest truth telling there is in the world is done by...

The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great...

The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great...

The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal...

The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal...

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our...

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our...

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom...

It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom...

To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

Why can't somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says,...

Why can't somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says,...

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to...

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to...

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.