Tag: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Quote Origin: Death Plucks My Ear and Says “Live, for I Am Coming”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Virgil? Apocryphal? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: The personification of Death has been employed in artworks to highlight mortality. We must attempt to achieve a full and worthwhile life during our brief period passing through this earthly realm. Here is a pertinent quotation:

Death plucks my ear and says “Live, for I am coming”

This macabre admonition has been attributed to physician Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and ancient Roman poet Virgil (also spelled Vergil). I am having difficulty tracing the provenance of this statement. Would you please help?

Reply from Quote Investigator: One of the minor works attributed to Virgil is a drinking song titled “Copa” in which an entertainer at a tavern beyond the gates of Rome entices travelers to eat, drink, and spend the day with pleasure instead of arduously pursuing transient fame represented by a garland or wreath. Here are the final lines of the song in Latin and English. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:[1]1827, History of Roman Literature During the Augustan Age by John Dunlop, Volume 3, Section: Publius Virgilius Maro (Virgil), Quote Page 195, Longman, Rees, Orma, Brown, and Green, London. (Verified … Continue reading

Quid cineri ingrato servas bene olentia serta?
Anne coronato vis lapidi ista legi?
Pone merum et talos. Pereant, qui crastina curant!
Mors aurem vellens—Vivite, ait, venio.

Why reserve you the garland, all sweet with perfume,
To deck the cold marble that closes the tomb?—
Set the dice and the wine:—May he perish who cares
For the good or the ill which to-morrow prepares;
Death pulls by the ear, and cries, “Live while you may;
I approach, and perhaps shall be with you to-day.”

The translation above appeared in an 1827 book about Roman literature by John Dunlop. The song was ascribed to Virgil by fifth-century grammarian Servius, but the authorship is disputed, and modern scholars have become skeptical.

The line mentioning Death achieved a spike in popularity in 1931 when it was spoken by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. within a radio address transmitted during his 90th birthday celebration. Holmes credited the line to a “Latin poet who uttered the message more than fifteen hundred years ago”.

A variety of English translations have entered circulation. Here is a sampling of renditions with dates:

1827: Death pulls by the ear, and cries, “Live while you may.”
1899: Death plucks my ear, and says, “Live! for I come.”
1906: Death, plucking his ear says, “Live ! I am coming!”
1916: Death, your ear demands and says, “I come, so live to-day.”
1929: Here’s Death twitching my ear, “Live,” says he, “for I’m coming!”
1931: Death plucks my ear and says “Live I am coming.”
1931: Death clutches my ear, and says, “Live, I am coming.”
1977: Death tugs at my ear and says: “Live, I am coming.”

Additional details are available in the article on the Medium platform which is located here.

Image Notes: Public domain illustration of an engraving made by Noël Le Mire based on a drawing by Jean-Baptiste Oudry representing a fable about death. The illustration is from volume 3 of “Fables choisies” by Jean de La Fontaine circa 1759. This image has been cropped and resized.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to quotation expert Mardy Grothe whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Grothe operates the impressive website “Dr. Mardy’s Dictionary of Metaphorical Quotations”.

References

References
↑1 1827, History of Roman Literature During the Augustan Age by John Dunlop, Volume 3, Section: Publius Virgilius Maro (Virgil), Quote Page 195, Longman, Rees, Orma, Brown, and Green, London. (Verified with scans) link

Quote Origin: Every Now and Then a Man’s Mind Is Stretched by a New Idea or Sensation, and Never Shrinks Back To Its Former Dimensions

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Albert Einstein? Ralph Waldo Emerson?

Question for Quote Investigator: Encountering a novel idea or sensation causes changes that permanently alter one’s intellect. This notion can be expressed as follows:

A mind that is stretched by a new idea or experience can never shrink back to its old dimensions.

Attempting to trace this saying is confusing because the phrasing is highly mutable. The adage has been attributed to physician Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., physicist Albert Einstein, and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. I have not been able to find solid citation using the original phrasing. Would you please help me?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match known to QI appeared in the September 1858 issue of “The Atlantic Monthly” of Boston, Massachusetts within a recurring column called “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table” written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior. Holmes’s mind was expanded when he saw a majestic mountain range. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:[1]1858 September, The Atlantic Monthly, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table: Every Man His Own Boswell, by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Start Page 496, Quote Page 502, Column 1, Ticknor and Fields, … Continue reading

Every man of reflection is vaguely conscious of an imperfectly-defined circle which is drawn about his intellect. He has a perfectly clear sense that the fragments of his intellectual circle include the curves of many other minds of which he is cognizant. He often recognizes these as manifestly concentric with his own, but of less radius. On the other hand, when we find a portion of an arc outside of our own, we say it intersects ours, but are very slow to confess or to see that it circumscribes it.

Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions. After looking at the Alps, I felt that my mind had been stretched beyond the limits of its elasticity, and fitted so loosely on my old ideas of space that I had to spread these to fit it.

QI believes Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. should receive credit for this adage. The variant phrasings evolved from Holmes’s initial expression. The attributions to Albert Einstein and Ralph Waldo Emerson appeared many decades after 1858 and are unsupported.

Here is a sampling of the different versions of the saying together with dates and attributions:

1858 Sep: Every now and then a man’s mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions. (Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.)

1895 Oct: A man’s mind now and then is stretched by a new idea and does not afterward shrink to its former dimensions. (Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes)

1949 Sep: Man’s mind once stretched to a new idea will never return to its former dimensions. (Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes)

1949 Oct: A man’s mind once stretched to a new idea never quite returns to its original size. (Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes)

1957: The mind, once stretched, never returns to its original size. (Anonymous)

1959: A man’s mind stretched by a new idea can never go back to its original dimensions. (Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes)

1960: A stretched mind never returns to its original dimension. (Anonymous)

1961: A man’s mind, once stretched by an idea, can never return to its original size. (Anonymous)

1967: Sometimes a person’s mind is stretched by a new idea and never does go back to its old dimensions. (Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes)

1980: The mind, once expanded to the dimension of larger ideas, never returns to its original size. (Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes)

1998: A mind once stretched by new thoughts can never regain its original shape. (Attributed to Albert Einstein)

2006: The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions. (Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson)

2008: A mind exposed to a new idea never shrinks back to its original size. (Attributed to Albert Einstein)

2009: The mind that opens to a new idea never goes back to its original size. (Attributed to Albert Einstein)

Additional details are available in the article on the Medium platform which is available here.

Image Notes: Painting of “The Schmadribach Falls” by Joseph Anton Koch circa 1822. This waterfall is located in the Swiss Alps. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. mentioned the mental changes he experienced when viewing the Alps to help explicate his adage.

Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Christopher Powell, Carolyn Haley, Penny Richards, David J. Haskell, Alessandra Lopez, and Michael Tyler whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to researcher Ralph Keyes who pointed to the 1858 citation in his valuable book “The Quote Verifier”. Additional thanks to participants on the Project Wombat mailing list: Carolyn Haley, Fred W. Helenius, and Sue W.

References

References
↑1 1858 September, The Atlantic Monthly, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table: Every Man His Own Boswell, by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Start Page 496, Quote Page 502, Column 1, Ticknor and Fields, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link

Everything Is Connected To Everything Else

Barry Commoner? Gotthold Ephraim Lessing? Leonardo da Vinci? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? John Muir? Jean Piaget? Daniel Patrick Moynihan? Solomon Short? David Gerrold? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The universe reflects a pervasive interconnectedness. Here are two versions of a pertinent adage:

Everything is connected to everything else.
Everything connects to everything else.

Ecological thinkers have used this as a guiding principle. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Quote Investigator: QI believes that this notion probably occurred in the mind of a primordial philosopher, but this article will center on written expressions from prominent figures.

This adage has often been attributed to the Italian Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci who died in 1519, but QI has only found citations for this linkage in recent decades, and this evidence is not substantive.

In 1769 German dramatist and philosopher Gotthold Ephraim Lessing published “Hamburgische Dramaturgie” (“The Hamburg Dramaturgy”) which contained a match. Below is an English translation[1]1889, Selected Prose Works of G. E. Lessing, New Revised Edition, Translated from the German by E. C. Beasley and Helen Zimmern, Edited by Edward Bell, Section: Dramatic Notes, Sub-Section: Number … Continue reading followed by the original text in German. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:[2] 1769, Hamburgische Dramaturgie by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Zweyter Theil (Volume 2), Quote Page 140 and 141, J. Dodsley und Compagnie. (Google Books Full View) link

In nature everything is connected, everything is interwoven, everything changes with everything, everything merges from one into another. But according to this endless variety it is only a play for an infinite spirit. In order that finite spirits may have their share of this enjoyment, they must have the power to set up arbitrary limits, they must have the power to eliminate and to guide their attention at will.

In der Natur ist alles mit allem verbunden; alles durchkreuzt sich, alles wechselt mit allem, alles verändert sich eines in das andere. Aber nach dieser unendlichen Mannigfaltigkeit ist sie nur ein Schauspiel für einen unendlichen Geist. Um endliche Geister an dem Genusse desselben Anteil nehmen zu lassen, mußten diese das Vermögen erhalten, ihr Schranken zu geben, die sie nicht hat; das Vermögen abzusondern und ihre Aufmerksamkeit nach Gutdünken lenken zu können.

Below are selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Everything Is Connected To Everything Else

References

References
↑1 1889, Selected Prose Works of G. E. Lessing, New Revised Edition, Translated from the German by E. C. Beasley and Helen Zimmern, Edited by Edward Bell, Section: Dramatic Notes, Sub-Section: Number 70, Quote Page 399, George Bell and Sons, London. (Google Books Full View) link
↑2 1769, Hamburgische Dramaturgie by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Zweyter Theil (Volume 2), Quote Page 140 and 141, J. Dodsley und Compagnie. (Google Books Full View) link

A Baby Learns To Speak in Two Years, But It Takes a Lifetime To Learn To Keep Quiet

Ernest Hemingway? Mark Twain? Luke McLuke? Lydia DeVilbiss? Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Frederick B. Wilcox? Abigail Van Buren? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: While searching the twitter database I encountered the following two similar jokes:

(1) Humans need two years to learn to speak and sixty years to learn to shut up.

(2) It takes two years to learn to talk, and the rest of your life to control your mouth.

Ernest Hemingway received credit for the first, and Mark Twain received credit for the second. I am skeptical of both of these ascriptions. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that either of these famous quotation magnets employed this quip. The expression is highly variable which makes this large family of quips difficult to trace, and this article will only present a snapshot of current research.

The earliest match located by QI appeared in a 1909 editorial published in a Wenatchee, Washington newspaper. The context indicated that the quip was already in circulation; hence, the ascription was anonymous. The word “exuberance” was misspelled as “exhuberance”:[1] 1909 October 13, The Wenatchee Daily World, A Diplomat Must Be Discreet, Quote Page 4, Column 1, Wenatchee, Washington. (Newspapers_com)

It is unfortunate that Charles R. Crane, who was recently designated as minister to China should have been led by an exhuberance of enthusiasm and interest in Oriental affairs to make remarks which might prove embarrassing to the administration. His indiscretion gives emphasis to the remark that it takes a person two years to learn how to talk and all the rest of his life to learn to keep from talking too much.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading A Baby Learns To Speak in Two Years, But It Takes a Lifetime To Learn To Keep Quiet

References

References
↑1 1909 October 13, The Wenatchee Daily World, A Diplomat Must Be Discreet, Quote Page 4, Column 1, Wenatchee, Washington. (Newspapers_com)

You Must Learn from the Mistakes of Others. You Will Never Live Long Enough to Make Them All Yourself

Hyman Rickover? Martin Vanbee? Eleanor Roosevelt? Harry Myers? Laurence J. Peter? Sam Levenson? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: These two simple adages have a long history:

  • Learn from your mistakes.
  • Learn from the mistakes of others.

Some wit crafted a hilarious addendum for the second adage:

  • You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.

This construction has been attributed to U.S. Navy Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: Rickover did employ this joke during a speech in 1983, but it was circulating decades earlier.

The first close match located by QI appeared in the 1932 book “Human Engineering” by Harry Myers and Mason M. Roberts. The words were credited to an unnamed person. Emphasis added to excerpts:[1]1932, Human Engineering by Harry Myers and Mason M. Roberts, Quote Page 213, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Based on snippet match in Google Books; the citation is not yet verified; text visible … Continue reading

Doctor, years ago I had a foreman who taught me a great deal. He was quite a philosopher. One day he said, “William, you must learn from the mistakes of others—you will never live long enough to make them all yourself.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading You Must Learn from the Mistakes of Others. You Will Never Live Long Enough to Make Them All Yourself

References

References
↑1 1932, Human Engineering by Harry Myers and Mason M. Roberts, Quote Page 213, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Based on snippet match in Google Books; the citation is not yet verified; text visible in snippet; contemporaneous book review in “Tampa Bay Times” mentions the saying)

Ah, Would That I Were Only 80 Years Old!

Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle? Samuel Rogers? Walter Besant? Helmuth von Moltke the Elder? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Georges Clemenceau?

Dear Quote Investigator: An amusing remark about longevity and libido has been ascribed to septuagenarians, octogenarians, nonagenarians, and centenarians. A venerable gentleman was sitting on a park bench with a friend, and he gazed at a beautiful woman who walked by them. He turned to his companion and said one of the following:

1) Oh, to be sixty again!
2) Ah! To be seventy again, with thirty years more to live!
3) Ah! What wouldn’t I give to be seventy again!
4) If I could only be eighty once more.

This type of comment has been attributed to the French author Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, the English poet Samuel Rogers, and the American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: In 1813 a collection of letters was published under the title “Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique”. A letter dated February 1, 1757 discussed Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, and his place in the exclusive salons of France. Fontenelle had died during the previous month when he was 99 years old. Boldface has been added to excerpts:[1]1813, Title: Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique: Adressée à Un Souverain d’Allemagne, depuis 1753 jusqu’en 1769, Part 1, Volume 2, Letter Date: 1er Février 1757 … Continue reading

Sans sa surdité qui l’empêchait de prendre part à la conversation, il eût été aussi agréable dans la société qu’il l’avait été à l’âge de trente ans. Il disait, il n’y a pas longtemps à une jeune femme, pour lui faire sentir l’impression que sa beauté faisait sur lui: Ah! si je n’avais que quatre-vingts ans.

Here’s one possible translation into English:

If his deafness hadn’t kept him from participating in conversation, he would have been as pleasant in society as he was at the age of 30. Not long ago he said to a young woman, to show her how impressed he was by her beauty, “Ah, would that I were only 80 years old!”

The remark above was the earliest instance in this family located by QI. During the 1800s, 1900s, and 2000s the expression was often ascribed to Fontenelle though the precise phrasing and circumstances varied. QI conjectures that other members in the family were derived directly or indirectly from the words of Fontenelle.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Ah, Would That I Were Only 80 Years Old!

References

References
↑1 1813, Title: Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique: Adressée à Un Souverain d’Allemagne, depuis 1753 jusqu’en 1769, Part 1, Volume 2, Letter Date: 1er Février 1757 (February 1, 1757), Letter Location: Paris, Start Page 147, Quote Page 151 and 152, Publisher: Longchamps, F. Buisson, Paris. (Google Books Full View) link

You Should Share the Passion and Action of Your Time at Peril of Being Judged Not To Have Lived

Plotinus? Herodotus? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Anonymous?

cannon11Dear Quote Investigator: Many are familiar with the ancient Latin injunction of the poet Horace: “Carpe diem” or “Seize the day”. The following thematically similar statement has been attributed to other figures of the ancient world: the philosopher Plotinus and the historian Herodotus:

Not to be involved with the actions and passions of your time is to run the risk of having not really lived at all.

Oddly, the same saying has been ascribed to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence linking the statement above to Plotinus or Herodotus. Unsupported attributions appeared in the 2000s, i.e., very recently.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. delivered a Memorial Day address on May 30, 1884 in Keene, New Hampshire. He spoke about a pivotal event in U.S history, the Civil War, which had ended nineteen years earlier. The speech of Holmes included the original instance of the saying. Boldface has been added to excerpts:[1]1884, Dead, Yet Living: An Address Delivered at Keene, New Hampshire on Memorial Day, May 30, 1884, Speaker: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Start Page 3, Quote Page 5, (Reprinted from the Boston Daily … Continue reading

When it was felt so deeply as it was on both sides that a man ought to take his part in the war unless some conscientious scruple or strong practical reason made it impossible, was that feeling simply the requirement of a local majority that their neighbors should agree with them? I think not: I think the feeling was right—in the South as in the North. I think that as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived.

Over the decades the phrasing has evolved. Many instances in circulation have been simplified and streamlined.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading You Should Share the Passion and Action of Your Time at Peril of Being Judged Not To Have Lived

References

References
↑1 1884, Dead, Yet Living: An Address Delivered at Keene, New Hampshire on Memorial Day, May 30, 1884, Speaker: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Start Page 3, Quote Page 5, (Reprinted from the Boston Daily Advertiser by the Author’s Permission), Published by Ginn, Heath, and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link

The Common Law Consists of About Half A Dozen Obvious Propositions, But Unfortunately …

Judge Dowdall? William Pickford? Lord Sterndale? Anonymous? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: Some lawyers take pride in their use of rigorous logical and legal reasoning. I once heard a hilarious remark about the body of law accumulated over the centuries. I do not remember the exact wording, but it was something like this:

The entire body of law and legal precedents may be derived from six obvious propositions; unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

Have you heard this saying before? Could you explore it?

Quote Investigator: In 1931 a judge named Dowdall presented a paper titled “The Psychological Origins of Law” at the Centenary Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He included a saying about the common law that matched your description. But he enclosed the remark in quotation marks to indicate that the words were not his. Boldface has been added to the passages below:[1]1932, British Association for the Advancement of Science: Report of the Centenary Meeting, (Held in London on September 23 through 30, 1931), Sectional Transactions – H – Anthropology, … Continue reading

Man’s rational nature looks to find some presiding genius or logical principle behind, and giving consistency to, these decisions—a god of justice, a law of nature, etc. But such is not easily found even in these days, and the discovery is fragmentary. ‘The English common law consists of half a dozen obvious propositions, but unfortunately no one knows what they are.’

In 1932 Judge Dowdall wrote a letter to The Times of London and stated that he heard the saying from William Pickford who became Lord Sterndale, a British judge appointed to the High Court. In the following excerpt the phrase “taken silk” referred to a barrister becoming a Senior counsel:[2] 1932 January 26, The Times (UK), Points from Letters: Lord Sterndale on Common Law, [Letter from Judge Dowdall], Page 8, Column 6, London, England. (The Times Digital Archive Cengage)

Lord Sterndale once said, “The common law consists of about half a dozen obvious propositions, but unfortunately nobody knows what they are.” He was reading a case I had looked up for him, and I did not know whether he was speaking to himself or enlightening a junior barrister in the mysteries of the law, and as his clerk immediately called him into Court the matter dropped. He was a leader at the time, and I think it was not long after he had taken silk. The observation is so witty and true that, unless it is already familiar, it deserves record; but as the number of those who knew, Lord Sterndale diminishes it would be interesting if any of your readers ever heard him make a similar observation.

Here are two more citations and the conclusion.

Continue reading The Common Law Consists of About Half A Dozen Obvious Propositions, But Unfortunately …

References

References
↑1 1932, British Association for the Advancement of Science: Report of the Centenary Meeting, (Held in London on September 23 through 30, 1931), Sectional Transactions – H – Anthropology, (Paper presented Saturday, September 26, 1931), “The Psychological Origins of Law” by His Honour Judge Dowdall, Start Page 448, Quote Page 449, Published at the Office of the British Association, London. (Biodiversity Heritage Library at biodiversitylibrary.org) link
↑2 1932 January 26, The Times (UK), Points from Letters: Lord Sterndale on Common Law, [Letter from Judge Dowdall], Page 8, Column 6, London, England. (The Times Digital Archive Cengage)

Secret of the Universe: A Strong Smell of Turpentine Prevails Throughout

Bertrand Russell? William James? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.?

Dear Quote Investigator: The eminent philosopher Bertrand Russell discussed visions and experiences in his major opus “A History of Western Philosophy” in 1945. Russell noted that subjective experiences were not always reliable:[1]1945, A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, Book One, Part II, Chapter XV: The Theory of Ideas, Page 123-124, Simon and Schuster, New York. (Verified on paper in 1976 paperback … Continue reading

William James describes a man who got the experience from laughing-gas; whenever he was under its influence, he knew the secret of the universe, but when he came to, he had forgotten it. At last, with immense effort, he wrote down the secret before the vision had faded. When completely recovered, he rushed to see what he had written. It was

“A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.”

What seems like sudden insight may be misleading, and must be tested soberly when the divine intoxication has passed.

Can you determine who experienced this eccentric revelation?

Quote Investigator: QI believes that this passage can be traced back to an episode described by the prominent physician and author Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. who on June 29, 1870 delivered an address before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University. The New York Tribune reported on the speech two days after it occurred. Holmes discussed his experiments with ether and not nitrous oxide, and the curious insight he wrote down was about “turpentine” and not “petroleum”. Boldface has been added to excerpts:[2] 1870 July 01, New York Daily Tribune, [New York Herald-Tribune], Harvard: Meeting of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Page 5, Column 1, [Quote in Column 2], New York. (Genealogybank)

A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout.

Here is an extended excerpt from the 1870 lecture of Holmes which was published in 1879:[3]1879, Mechanism in Thought and Morals: An Address Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, June 29, 1870, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Quote Page 46-47, Houghton, Osgood … Continue reading

I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether, with the determination to put on record, at the earliest moment of regaining consciousness, the thought I should find uppermost in my mind. The mighty music of the triumphal march into nothingness reverberated through my brain, and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities, which made me an archangel for the moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth which underlies all human experience, and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear: a few words had lifted my intelligence to the level of the knowledge of the cherubim. As my natural condition returned, I remembered my resolution; and, staggering to my desk, I wrote, in ill-shaped, straggling characters, the all-embracing truth still glimmering in my consciousness. The words were these (children may smile; the wise will ponder): “A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout.”

An individual using the handle “joculum” investigated this quotation and posted a valuable analysis here on LiveJournal in 2008. The address by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was located by joculum before QI found it independently.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Secret of the Universe: A Strong Smell of Turpentine Prevails Throughout

References

References
↑1 1945, A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, Book One, Part II, Chapter XV: The Theory of Ideas, Page 123-124, Simon and Schuster, New York. (Verified on paper in 1976 paperback reprint: A Touchstone Book: Simon and Schuster)
↑2 1870 July 01, New York Daily Tribune, [New York Herald-Tribune], Harvard: Meeting of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, Page 5, Column 1, [Quote in Column 2], New York. (Genealogybank)
↑3 1879, Mechanism in Thought and Morals: An Address Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard University, June 29, 1870, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Quote Page 46-47, Houghton, Osgood and Company, Boston. (Google Books full view) link