The best of a book is not the thought which it contains,
by Oliver Wendell Holmes

The best of a book is not the thought which it contains,
but the thought which it suggests;
just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones
but in the echoes of our hearts.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Related topics: Wisdom

Greatness is not in where we stand,
but in what direction we are moving.
We must sail sometimes with the wind
and sometimes against it -
but sail we must,
and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

It is the province of knowledge to speak,
and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

A mind that is stretched by a new experience
an never go back to its old dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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Thank you for joining me on this journey we call life,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When in doubt, do it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Apology is only egotism wrong side out.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea,
never regains its original dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold;
But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

A mind, once stretched by a new idea,
never regains its original dimensions.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Some people are so heavenly minded
that they are no earthly good.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

To be seventy years young is sometimes
far more cheerful and hopeful
than to be forty years old.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Except in cases of necessity, which are rare,
leave your friend to learn
unpleasant things from his enemies;
they are ready enough to tell them.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Old age is fifteen years older than I am.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Simply do your best, and you will avoid
self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Tolerance is the first principle of community;
it is the spirit which conserves
the best that all men think.
- Helen Keller

Life is best when I wish neither to hurry the future nor to slow it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

A common denominator of all religions is that
they have the power to bring out the best and the worst in people.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Best Friends: we're a parade - even by ourselves!
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Knowing your own darkness is the best method
for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
- Carl Jung

The Four Agreements
1.Be impeccable with your word.
2.Don't take anything personally.
3.Don't make assumptions.
4.Always do your best.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Always do your best.
- don Miguel Ruiz

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.
- Henry David Thoreau

When you do your best
you learn to accept yourself
- don Miguel Ruiz

A leader is best when people barely know he exists;
when his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
they will say: we did it ourselves.
- Lao Tzu

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

You may call God love, you may call God goodness.
But the best name for God is compassion.
- Meister Eckhart

It is no use saying, "We are doing our best."
You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
- Winston Churchill

The best road to progress is freedom's road.
- John F. Kennedy

Make the best use of what is in your power,
and take the rest as it happens.
- Epictetus

I never had a policy;
I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.
- Abraham Lincoln

The best is yet to come.
- Ernest Holmes

Success often grows best in the fertile soil of failure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Sometimes you get the results you wanted,
sometimes you don't.
What matters is that you did your best.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Die when I may, I want it said by those who knew me best
that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower
where I thought a flower would grow.
- Abraham Lincoln

The best things in life are free.
- Anonymous

Write it on your heart that every day
is the best day in the year.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The best way to gain self-confidence
is to do what you are afraid to do.
- Anonymous

There are some things you learn best in calm,
and some in storm.
- Willa Cather

The best relationship is one in which
your love for each other
exceeds your need for each other.
- Anonymous

Health is the greatest gift,
contentment the greatest wealth,
faithfulness the best relationship.
- The Buddha

The most successful people in life
are generally those who have the best information.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Things turn out best for the people
who make the best of the way things turn out.
- Art Linkletter

When the best leader's work is done the people say,
"We did it ourselves."
- Lao Tzu

Experience is the best teacher.
- Proverb

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy
is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet,
alone with the heavens, nature and God.
Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.
- Anne Frank

He who knows best knows how little he knows.
- Thomas Jefferson

If a man does his best, what else is there?
- George S. Patton

The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
- Terry Goodkind

My experience has been that work is
almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Use what talents you possess.
The woods would be very silent
if no birds sang there,
except those that sang best.
- Henry Van Dyke

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer
is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
- Theodore Roosevelt

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you,
whose presence calls forth your best.
- Epictetus

May you never forget what is worth remembering,
or remember what is best forgotten.
- Anonymous

If a man empties his purse into his head,
no man can take it away from him.
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
- Benjamin Franklin

In times of great stress or adversity,
it's always best to keep busy,
to plow your anger and your energy
into something positive.
- Lee Iacocca

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Success comes from knowing that
you did your best to become the best
that you are capable of becoming.
- John Wooden

When we do the best that we can,
we never know what miracle is wrought in our life,
or in the life of another.
- Helen Keller

A man's good name is his best monument
- from an old churchyard at Lockerbie, Scotland

An optimist is one who makes the best
of what he gets the worst of.
- Anonymous

Luck marches with those who give their very best.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Ones best success comes after their greatest disappointments.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Speak when you are angry -
and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret.
- Laurence J. Peter

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words;
it is expressed in the choices one makes...
and the choices we make
are ultimately our responsibility.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
- The Buddha

You have to accept whatever comes
and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage
and with the best that you have to give.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Laughter is the best medicine.
- Anonymous

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May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie