Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
We call those poets who are first to mark, Through earth's dull mist the coming of the dawn, Who see in twilight's gloom the first pale spark, While others only note that day is gone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote celebrates poets as visionaries who perceive beauty and potential where others see only darkness.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. describes poets as individuals with the unique ability to anticipate and recognize beauty and meaning in the world, even when others are blind to it. By illustrating the contrast between those who can see the dawn breaking through the mist and those who merely acknowledge the end of the day, he emphasizes the poets' role in bringing hope and inspiration through their art. Poets shine a light in times of metaphorical darkness, helping others to see and appreciate the beauty of the world at its most subtle moments.
Themes
PoetryArtPerceptionHopeInspirationBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity, one might quote this to emphasize the artist's role in society.
More from Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
All quotes βThe very aim and end of our institutions is just this: that we may think what we like and say what we think.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
Don't you stay at home of evenings? Don't you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that - one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
Do not be bullied out of your common sense by the specialist; two to one, he is a pedant.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
Similar quotes
I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.
Tracy ChapmanRead
I saw that the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs. I knew at that point I had to have a camera.
Gordon ParksRead
One of the beauties of art is that it reflects an artist's entire life. What I've learned over the past 30 years is really beginning to inform what I make. I hope that process continues until I die.
Andy GoldsworthyRead
I will begin with what in my opinion is your lack of restraint. You are like a spectator in a theatre who expresses his enthusiasm so unrestrainedly that he prevents himself and others from hearing. That lack of restraint is particularly noticeable in the descriptions of nature with which you interrupt dialogues; when one reads them, these descriptions, one wishes they were more compact, shorter, say two or three lines.
Anton ChekhovRead
Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition.
Jack KerouacRead
Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.
Virginia WoolfRead