Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

Man is born a predestined idealist, for he is born to act. To act is to affirm the worth of an end, and to persist in affirming the worth of an end is to make an ideal.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

The great thing in this world is not so much where you stand, as in what direction you are moving.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes

The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.

—Daniel Webster

Facts are the enemy of truth.

—Miguel de Cervantes

I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved.

—George Eliot

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

—Neil Gaiman