OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
While a few people are ready to return to first principles, many are giving expressions to Garden of Eden proclivities. But instead of the old Eve, you have the new Amazon; instead of the old serpent, copperheads in Congress; instead of the old Adam, fresh brands of bluebeards.
Agreeable to the apple of the new Adam’s eye and the fruitarian diet of the new Eden, some ladies have adopted the fig-leaf standard. But let that pass for the moment, always bearing in mind that he who loses his sense of humor loses his equilibrium.
Millions of people are dancing their legs off to keep their heads on.
Providence is wiser than the moralists.
There was a way out of the trenches and there is a way out of the pessimism developed by the dying dispensation. It is not so much a question of keeping your powder dry as it is of keeping your wits from congealing.
Beware of nebulous notions and theories. Uncanny kinks lead to calamitous brain storms. A stitch in the side saves nine—kicks behind the solar plexus.