On 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
There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We can choose to let go of certain memories, yet it's beneficial to gain knowledge from them.
This quote suggests that while we may have the ability to forget various experiences or information, it is still important to learn valuable lessons from those things. In essence, it advocates for the idea that knowledge and growth come from all kinds of experiences, even those we might wish to forget.
Themes
ForgettingLearningWisdomKnowledgeExperience
In practice
Example use cases
In a graduation speech emphasizing the importance of lifelong learning.
More from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
All quotes βIf 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.
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Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
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If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
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