Remarks by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“Let us leave it then unwritten for the present, and think how much more precious is an infinite series of undefined expectations than any paltry performance or transient fruition.”

A memorable defence of possibility and anticipation over forced production · Letter to Edward Everett Hale, December 7, 1869

“To write a lyric is like having a fit.”

One of his sharpest descriptions of poetry as an involuntary creative impulse · Letter, The Victim of Correspondents

“I am ready to lend my cordial support to such practical measures as furnishing them with better dwellings.”

Supporting practical improvements in living conditions for the poor · Letter on social reform

“I believe I have never treated the poor unkindly in any way.”

A personal statement of sympathy towards people living in poverty · Letter on social reform

“I am an out-and-out believer in practical measures for improving their condition.”

Expressing support for concrete improvements rather than merely rhetorical reform · Letter on social reform

“A sectional literature does not seem to us to promise much.”

Scepticism about literature defined primarily by regional allegiance · Letter concerning Southern literature

“Whenever anything really deserving of high praise is accomplished, I very sincerely believe that none will more readily acknowledge its excellence than your Northern fellow-countrymen.”

Expressing a willingness to recognise merit across sectional divisions · Letter concerning Southern literature

“I cannot help feeling an interest in all the members of my old friend’s family.”

Showing loyalty extending beyond an individual to the family and relationships surrounding him · Letter concerning post-Civil War reconciliation

“Old friendships like your father’s and mine are hard to outgrow.”

Affection surviving political conflict and historical division · Letter concerning post-Civil War reconciliation

“I do not ask them to forgive and forget as easily; it is not in nature that they should.”

Recognising that genuine reconciliation cannot simply demand the erasure of painful memory · Letter concerning post-Civil War reconciliation

“I could not call up the images which your poem pictured in words without a thrill of sympathy and an aching of regret.”

Demonstrating how poetry could evoke genuine sympathy for suffering · Letter to Paul H. Hayne, April 11, 1877

“The possibility of pre-natal poisoning was interesting, but what I had in mind was to raise the question of its effect upon moral responsibility.”

Explaining the deeper ethical question behind a scientific premise in his fiction · Letter concerning Elsie Venner

“I don’t know that you have told me where it came from.”

A small glimpse of his continuing curiosity about the provenance of objects · Letter concerning a gift of snake skin

“It is a most fascinating subject every way, chemically, biologically, and theologically.”

Showing his habit of connecting scientific curiosity with wider intellectual questions · Letter concerning serpent venom

“Everybody admires the wonderful snake drapery.”

Finding aesthetic beauty in an unexpected natural object · Letter concerning a snake skin

“There is something wonderfully fascinating about these venomous beasts, and I can never read too much about them.”

Revealing his enthusiastic curiosity about the natural world · Letter concerning serpents

“I am really very proud of it, and keep it displayed in my library, where it is a great attraction.”

A glimpse of his delight in unusual objects and natural curiosities · Letter concerning a gift of snake skin

“Time, that dear old physician, cures more patients than all the M.D.’s.”

A playful metaphor for the healing effects of time · Letter to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward

“If I could make you well, I believe I would turn doctor again.”

A warm expression of affection through the language of his former profession · Letter to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward

“The sense that we are perhaps lightening another’s burden makes even the commonest intercourse a source of satisfaction.”

Finding deep value in the ordinary acts of companionship and sympathy · Letter concerning bereavement

“Those are the hours when friendship means the most, when we feel that we come nearer than at any other time to our intimates.”

Describing friendship as especially meaningful during periods of suffering · Letter concerning bereavement

“No man makes a quarrel with me over the counterpane that covers a mother, with her new-born infant at her breast.”

Using an image of maternal tenderness to argue against needless hostility · Introduction to a Defence of the Professorship of Medicine

“I take no offence, and attempt no retort.”

An example of restrained disagreement rather than retaliatory criticism · Introduction to a Defence of the Professorship of Medicine

“Faith did not require less exercise than any other living thing, and was not all the better for a shaking up now and then.”

Suggesting that healthy faith can survive and benefit from intellectual examination · Religious reflections quoted in the memoir

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