Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Quotes

The future starts today, not tomorrow.

My brain power depends on my retained mastery of analyzing in detail what's happening in my world and in my mind and body. I must continue to practice to retain my constructive and analytic powers. The goal is to be a master of my environment.

Life is about timing.

The intellectual, the man of thought, doubt and analysis, should give the best of himself.

'Smart', in American usage, is slicker and sharper than 'intelligent'; faster off the mark and quicker on its feet than deep thought.

The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.

I enjoy high-speed about-turns in thought.

I really have this sense that time is passing, and it's important to do what you have wanted to do.

Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Too often, the opportunity knocks, but by the time you push back the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and shut off the burglar alarm, it's too late.

Writing's a great skill, but thinking's a better one.

One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven't and don't.

My parents encouraged thought. You'll get through life better if you learn how to think.

One of the reasons why so few of us ever act, instead of react, is because we are continually stifling our deepest impulses.

The Final Jeopardy! questions seem to be, by design, things you can't know. And so it's not about who knows them, but who can figure them out in thirty seconds.

People who have no hold over their process of thinking are likely to be ruined by liberty of thought. If thought is immature, liberty of thought becomes a method of converting men into animals.

The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.

There can be no two opinions as to what a highbrow is. He is the man or woman of thoroughbred intelligence who rides his mind at a gallop across country in pursuit of an idea.

The future begins today.

You have to think a little smarter, be proactive, not reactive.

I think that the best things come from thought, without thinking. I think that's the smartest use of the intelligence that we all have.

You control what you can control.

The important thing is always to be sharp and score when the opportunity arises.

I have always tended to over-think things and that had come into my game. That's good in certain moments but not when you have to make a quick decision.