Selections from the Writings of Oliver Wendell Holmes: Arr. Under the Days of the Year, & Accompanied by Memoranda of Anniversaries of Noted Events & of the Birth Or Death of Famous Men & Women

Front Cover
Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1889 - 50 pages

From inside the book

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 46 - I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, — but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
Page 43 - But little-minded people's thought move in such small circles that five minutes' conversation gives you an arc long enough to determine their whole curve. An arc in the movement 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 betray it.
Page 76 - The snowdrop, bearing on her patient breast The frozen trophy torn from winter's crest; The violet, gazing on the arch of blue Till her own iris wears its deepened hue; The spendthrift crocus, bursting through the mould Naked and shivering with his cup of gold.

Bibliographic information