Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

There are a good many real miseries in life that we cannot help
smiling at, but they are the read more

There are a good many real miseries in life that we cannot help
smiling at, but they are the smiles that make wrinkles and not
dimples.

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
read more

I know it is a sin
For me to sit and grin
At him here;
But the old three-cornered hat
And the breeches and all that
Are so queer.

Thou art a female, Katydid!
I know it by the trill
That quivers through thy piercing notes
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Thou art a female, Katydid!
I know it by the trill
That quivers through thy piercing notes
So petulant and shrill.
I think there is a knot of you
Beneath the hollow tree,
A knot of spinster Katydids,--
Do Katydids drink tea?

Everything is twice as large, measured on a three-year-old's
three-foot scale on a thirty-year-old's six-foot scale.

Everything is twice as large, measured on a three-year-old's
three-foot scale on a thirty-year-old's six-foot scale.

There are three wicks you know to the lamp of a man's life:
brain, blood, and breath. Press the read more

There are three wicks you know to the lamp of a man's life:
brain, blood, and breath. Press the brain a little, its light
goes out, followed by both the others. Stop the heart a minute,
and out go all three of the wicks. Choke the air out of the
lungs, and presently the fluid ceases to supply the other centres
of flame, and all is soon stagnation, cold, and darkness.