There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Elders' advice can sometimes be impractical or outdated, similar to subjective lists like the 'hundred best books'.
In this quote, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. suggests that the guidance offered by older generations may not always resonate with the realities faced by the youth. He compares this advice to a list of the 'hundred best books', implying that while such lists can be subjective and may reflect the tastes of their compilers rather than universal truths, so too can the wisdom of the elders sometimes miss the mark and appear disconnected from the experiences and challenges of younger individuals.
Themes
AdviceEldersYouthWisdomExperienceSubjectivity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about generational differences at a community center.
More from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
All quotes βOn the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself, as against the saints who deny it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Why should you row a boat race? Why endure the long months of pain in preparation for a fierce half hour that will leave you all but dead? Does anyone ask the question? Is there anyone who would not go through all the costs, and more, for the moment when anguish breaks into triumph or even for the glory of having nobly lost? Is life less than a boat race? If a man will give the blood in his body to win the one, will he spend all the might of his soul to prevail in the other?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
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