Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. 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.
(The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858)

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

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Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 1859)

It is by little things that we know ourselves.

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

A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Professor at the Breakfast Table, 1859)

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