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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Truth is resilient and enduring, not easily shattered by external forces.
This quote emphasizes the strength and durability of truth, suggesting that, unlike fragile things that can be easily destroyed, truth remains intact and unchanged despite being challenged or misrepresented. It compares truth to a football, which can be kicked and tossed around but retains its shape and consistency, highlighting the idea that no matter how much one may try to distort or undermine it, the essence of truth remains strong and unyielding.
Themes
TruthResilienceStrengthPhilosophyEndurance
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about the nature of truth in academia.
More from Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
All quotes →Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Read
The 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
Similar quotes
Sometimes, surely, truth is closer to imagination or to intelligence, to love than to fact? To be accurate is not to be right.
Shirley HazzardRead
There are no contests in the Art of Peace. A true warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbor within.
Morihei UeshibaRead
The Law and the Gospel are two keys. The Law is the key that shutteth up all men under condemnation, and the Gospel is the key which opens the door and lets them out.
William TyndaleRead
If it’s going to be a world with no time for sentiment, it’s not a world that I want to live in.
Christopher IsherwoodRead
Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.
Simone WeilRead
Have you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity?
William ShakespeareRead