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But to radiate the heat of the affections into a clod, which absorbs all that is poured into it, but never warms beneath the sunshine of smiles or the pressure of hand or lip,—this is the great martyrdom of sensitive beings,—most of all in that perpetual auto da fé where young womanhood is the sacrifice.

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

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More quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a deal longer.

The Professor at the Breakfast Table (1859)

All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called “facts.” They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

A thought is often original, though you have uttered it a hundred times. It has come to you over a new route, by a new and express train of associations.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.