“How many people live on the reputation of the reputation they might have made!”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), Ch. 3

About Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

1809 – 1894

American physician, poet and essayist, author of "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table".

“People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks.”

“Beware how you take away hope from any human being.”

“Deal with him as a truant, if you will, but claim him, keep him, call him brother still!”

“The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.”

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”