Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
American poet, writer, and doctor
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Language is a solemn thing, I said. It grows out of life, out of its agonies and ecstasies, its wants and its weariness. Every language is a temple, in which the soul of those who speak it is enshrined.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, The Poet at the Breakfast Table, 1860
Posted on October 11, 1999 at 11:08 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
A sick man that gets talking about himself, a woman that gets talking about her baby, and an author that begins reading out of his own book, never know when to stop.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, The Poet at the Breakfast Table, 1872
Posted on June 15, 1999 at 3:49 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
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 given by the attrition of ages.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858
Posted on March 30, 1999 at 10:30 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
I am omniverbivorous by nature and training. Passing by such words as are poisonous, I can swallow most others, and chew such as I cannnot swallow.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858
Posted on April 5, 1999 at 6:27 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Talking is like playing the harp; there is as much in laying the hand on the strings to stop their vibrations as in twanging them to bring out their music.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858
Posted on February 9, 1999 at 11:16 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Speak clearly, if you speak at all;
Carve every word before you let it fall.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, A Rhymed Lesson
Posted on March 7, 2001 at 11:18 AM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
Life and language are alike sacred. Homicide and verbicide—that is, violent treatment of a word with fatal results to its legitimate meaning, which is its life—are alike forbidden.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
Posted on May 27, 2002 at 6:45 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
People who make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset a freight train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
Posted on November 6, 2001 at 7:09 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
A pun does not commonly justify a blow in return. But if a blow were given for such cause, and death ensued, the jury would be judges both of the facts and of the pun, and might, if the latter were of an aggravated character, return a verdict of justifiable homicide.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American poet, writer, and doctor, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
Posted on November 27, 2001 at 7:17 AM
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