H.P. Oliver Quotes

Turn, gentle Hermit of the Dale, And guide my lonely way To where yon taper cheers the vale With hospitable ray.

Whatever be the motives which induce men to write,--whether avarice or fame,--the country becomes more wise and happy in which they most serve for instructors.

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, that one small head could carry all he knew.

Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please.

All that philosophy can teach is to be stubborn or sullen under misfortunes.

To aim at excellence, our reputation, and friends, and all must be ventured; to aim at the average we run no risk and provide little service.

Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe, That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so.

Our pleasures are short, and can only charm at intervals; love is a method of protraction our greatest pleasure.

Books are necessary to correct the vices of the polite; but those vices are ever changing, and the antidote should be changed accordingly should still be new.

We sometimes had those little rubs which Providence sends to enhance the value of its favors.

I am always looking for some clue, some easily missed sign that might just be the missing piece in the puzzle.

Criticized for using formal mathematical manipulations, without understanding how they worked: Should I refuse a good dinner simply because I do not understand the process of digestion?

Children, behold the Chimpanzee: He sits on the ancestral tree From which we sprang in ages gone.

My wife has a whim of iron.

Friend, you're HOPELESSLY hooked!

The paintings each take several months to do and it's quite a cathartic and intense experience that's very pleasurable, but also very strange.

There is no moral middle ground. Indifference is not an option. ... For the sake of our children, I implore each of you to be unyielding and inflexible in your opposition to drugs.

Optimism is a psychological disorder exhibited by those out of touch with reality

Eccentricity is like having an accent. It's what "other" people have.

I have often seen quite demented patients recognize and respond vividly to paintings and delight in the act of painting at a time when they are scarcely responsive, disoriented, and out of it.

I think everyone has the same question on their mind: Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

Now, we live in an age where we have so much information that we do tend to overload. The Greeks did too, though.

I've changed my style constantly, so I'm not sure I have one defined style, except perhaps style of subject matter.

I've changed my style constantly, so I'm not sure I have one defined style, except perhaps style of subject matter. But you learn as you go, I suppose.

I love the act of writing. I like the quiet, internal aspect of it. If I lost track of that, I couldn't direct the same way. I couldn't be a director for-hire; it's just not my nature.

With television, the image has been degenerated, no question. With the internet, commercials... people are much too cynical about image. It's stale. And all over the world, not just America.

[Science is] piecemeal revelation.

The truth is that the whole system of beliefs which comes in with the story of the fall of man ... is gently falling out of enlightened human intelligence.

The sea drowns out humanity and time. It has no sympathy with either, for it belongs to eternity; and of that it sings its monotonous song forever and ever.

Simple people... are very quick to see the live facts which are going on about them.

Yes, child of suffering, thou may'st well be sure He who ordained the Sabbath loves the poor!

Society is always trying in some way to grind us down to a single flat surface.

Men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay.

Deep-seated preferences cannot be argued about - you cannot argue a man into liking a glass of beer.

Free competition is worth more to society than it costs.

Blood is a destiny. One's genius descends in the stream from long lines of ancestry.

In my opinion, economists and sociologists are the people to whom we ought to turn more than we do for instruction in the grounds and foundations of all rational decisions.

The joy of life is to put out one's power in some natural and useful or harmless way. There is no other. And the real misery is not to do this.

If wine tells truth - and so have said the wise, It makes me laugh to think how brandy lies!

Systems die; instincts remain.

Research and writing are lonely occupations. It is easy to become discouraged in solitary confinement.

It's a good thing to be rich and a good thing to be strong, but it is a better thing to be beloved of many friends.

The wind blows out, the bubble dies; The spring entomb'd in autumn lies; The dew dries up; the star is shot; The flight is past, and man forgot.

Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.

Most of us retain enough of the theological attitude to think that we are little gods.

I think that I could see Darwin having a relationship with Asia.

After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself. Then reimagine the world.

We wanted the freedom to love. We wanted the freedom to choose. Now we have to fight for it.

When you hate someone you used to love, and you think he's done something awful - he probably has.

We must think things not words, or at least we must constantly translate our words into the facts for which they stand, if we are to keep to the real and the true.