Oliver Wendell Holmes Stand Quote T-Shirt

“... the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving ..." Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809 - 1894) was a famous 19th century American physician, poet, professor, lecturer, author. One of the Fireside Poets, along with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, John Greenleaf Whittier and James Russell Lowell, Holmes was best known for prose works, the "Breakfast-Table" series, as well as many poems. "Old Ironsides", published in 1830, was influential in the preservation of the USS Constitution. Fans of his poetry included President Abraham Lincoln and the notoriously critical Edgar Allan Poe. But Holmes never gave up his primary occupation as a physician and is also recognized as an important medical reformer of the 19th century. He was the father of American jurist, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, who also fought bravely in the American Civil War.