“It is the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1872), Ch. 10

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!”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”