The Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes: The autocrat of the breakfast-tablePrinted at the Riverside Press, 1891 |
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Page xi
... conversation . " - " When I feel inclined to read poetry I take down my Dictionary . The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as that of sentences . The author may arrange the gems effectively , but their shape and lustre have been ...
... conversation . " - " When I feel inclined to read poetry I take down my Dictionary . The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as that of sentences . The author may arrange the gems effectively , but their shape and lustre have been ...
Page 1
... conversation , so far as assent or pertinent ques- tions are involved . He abused his liberty on this oc- casion by presuming to say that Leibnitz had the same observation . —No , sir , I replied , he has not . But he said a mighty good ...
... conversation , so far as assent or pertinent ques- tions are involved . He abused his liberty on this oc- casion by presuming to say that Leibnitz had the same observation . —No , sir , I replied , he has not . But he said a mighty good ...
Page 5
... conversation is a very serious matter . There are men whom it weakens one to talk with an hour more than a day's fasting would do . Mark this which I am going to say , for it is as good as a working professional man's advice , and costs ...
... conversation is a very serious matter . There are men whom it weakens one to talk with an hour more than a day's fasting would do . Mark this which I am going to say , for it is as good as a working professional man's advice , and costs ...
Page 7
... conversation , but an idea often . I shall use the same types when I like , but not commonly the same stereotypes . A thought is often original , though you have uttered it a hundred times . It has come to you over a new route , by a ...
... conversation , but an idea often . I shall use the same types when I like , but not commonly the same stereotypes . A thought is often original , though you have uttered it a hundred times . It has come to you over a new route , by a ...
Page 10
... conversation gives you an are long enough to determine their whole curve . An arc in the move- ment of a large intellect does not sensibly differ from a straight line . Even if it have the third vowel as its centre , it does not soon ...
... conversation gives you an are long enough to determine their whole curve . An arc in the move- ment of a large intellect does not sensibly differ from a straight line . Even if it have the third vowel as its centre , it does not soon ...
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American elm asked asphyxia beauty beneath Benjamin Franklin better boarders bombazine brain call John chair cheroot comes commonly conversation course dandyism dear divinity-student Doctors of Divinity doubt dream England town English elms eyes face fact falchion fancy feel feet flowers French language green grow hand head hear heard heart horse Houyhnhnm human hundred intellectual kind lady landlady's daughter laugh lecture lips literary living long path look man's mean meerschaum ment mind morning Nature never o'er old age old gentleman opposite OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES once perhaps person poem poets poor Professor remarks remember round rowlocks schoolmistress seen smile sometimes soul speak spring stone story suppose sweet talk tell things thought tion told trees truth turned verses voice walk waves woman words write young fellow youth
Popular passages
Page 97 - This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, Sails the unshadowed main, — The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
Page 98 - Build thee more stately mansions, O 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!
Page 98 - The venturous bark that flings On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings, And coral reefs lie bare, Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl, Wrecked is the ship of pearl ! And every chambered cell, Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell...
Page 255 - For the wheels were just as strong as the thills, And the floor was just as strong as the sills And the panels just as strong as the floor, And the whipple-tree neither less nor more, And the back-crossbar as strong as the fore.
Page 253 - T' make that place uz strong uz the rest." So the Deacon inquired of the village folk Where he could find the strongest oak, That couldn't be split nor bent nor broke, — That was for spokes and floor and sills; He sent for lancewood to make the thills; The crossbars were ash, from the straightest...
Page 269 - ... value for their power to please, And selfish churls deride ; — One Stradivarius, I confess, Two Meerschaums, I would fain possess. Wealth's wasteful tricks I will not learn, Nor ape the glittering upstart fool ; — Shall not carved tables serve my turn, But all must be of buhl ? Give grasping pomp its double share, — I ask but one recumbent chair. Thus humble let me live and die, Nor long for Midas...
Page 309 - If it please the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the...
Page 98 - Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings :Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Page 93 - I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving...
Page 69 - Why, yes ; for memory would recall My fond paternal joys ; I could not bear to leave them all ; I'll take — my — girl — and — boys ! The smiling angel dropped his pen, — " Why this will never do ; The man would be a boy again, And be a father too...