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

Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.

Sweet is the scene where genial friendship plays the pleasing game of interchanging praise.

It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.

It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living.

Fresh air is good if you do not take too much of it; most of...

Fresh air is good if you do not take too much of it; most of...

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it.

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it.

Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often...

Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often...

The man flaps about with a bunch of feathers: the woman goes to work softly...

The man flaps about with a bunch of feathers: the woman goes to work softly...

A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them:...

A few can touch the magic string, and noisy fame is proud to win them:...

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...

Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.

Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth.

The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how...

The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but learning how...

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...

The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does...

The world is always ready to receive talent with open arms. Very often it does...

Every idea is an incitement... Eloquence may set fire to reason.

Every idea is an incitement... Eloquence may set fire to reason.

Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell...

Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell...

People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more rarely than those...

People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more rarely than those...

Grow we must, if we outgrow all that loves us.

Grow we must, if we outgrow all that loves us.

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...

Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The...

Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The...

Friendships begin with liking or gratitude roots that can be pulled up.

Friendships begin with liking or gratitude roots that can be pulled up.

Suspicion is the cancer of friendship.

Suspicion is the cancer of friendship.