The Magnificent Yankee (1950)

Louis Calhern: Oliver Wendell Holmes - The Magnificent Yankee

Photos 

Quotes 

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : [to Reynolds]  It's a free country. Everybody's entitled to his opinion... even the President of the United States.

• [referring to President Theodore Roosevelt] 

  Oliver Wendell Holmes : He said, among other things, that he could carve a judge with more backbone out of a banana.

  Fanny Bowditch Holmes : [outraged]  Well, the very idea!

  Graham, reporter for Boston Transcript : Is there any statement, Mrs. Holmes, that you would make?

  Fanny Bowditch Holmes : Yes, Mr. Graham, there is.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes : Fanny...

  Fanny Bowditch Holmes : You may say that we adore dear Mr. Roosevelt at all times -

  Graham, reporter for Boston Transcript : Adore, Mrs. Holmes?

  Fanny Bowditch Holmes : Yes, Mr. Graham, we adore everything about him... except his taste in bananas.

• Adams : Holmes. What is it that always makes you so infirmly unworried about everything?

  Oliver Wendell Holmes : Listen Adams. When I was mustered out of the civil war, people told me the country was going to the dogs. When I went on the bench in Massachusetts twenty years ago, people told me the country was going to the dogs. I don't think we're out of the trenches yet, but we're a long way from the dogs.

  Adams : Perhaps. But I hear them barking just the same.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : That's alright son, I don't mind paying taxes. That's the way I buy civilization.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : If you're a credit to me and I'm a credit to you, we'll both have something to brag about.

  Annie Gough : Yes Sir!

  Oliver Wendell Holmes : On the other hand, if we disappoint each other, there's no harm done. You see my boy, I intend to have all the pleasures of parenthood and none of the responsibility.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : We better eat up. You can't do a thing without a hearty breakfast!

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : How do you say goodbye when you've been married 57 years?

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : If I don't come up to expectations, remember, you asked for it!

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : Most of the time, Freedom of Speech is like the jabbering of that parrot; nobody listens and nobody cares.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : I guess it takes all kinds to make a country.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : The riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal. There is always a little finishing canter just before the end. There is time to hear the kind words of friends and to say to oneself - the work is done. But no more than they say that, the answer comes back, the race is over but the work is never done while the power to work remains. So the little canter need not simply a matter of coming to a rest, it cant be while you still live for to live is to function. That's all there is to living.

• Fanny Bowditch Holmes : You know and I know that a Yankee wife is a good wife, only when he's a good mother too.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes : Oh no. Oh No Fanny, you mustn't let go now. Fanny, you have the joy of living in you. You've shared it with me all these years. Not your fault if we're unable to pass that joy along.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : Fanny, I'm delighted to see Brandeis here today. But why did you have to invite Adams?

  Fanny Bowditch Holmes : Oh, I just had an idea. I'd like to see Mr. Adams congratulate Mr. Brandeis.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes : You're not only a beautiful but a dangerous women.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : Life is not doing a sum. It's not a matter of adding up the years. Life is painting a picture and we must have a little confidence that the canvas will fill itself out as we go along. A man must go on, charting his course by stars he's never seen and digging with a divining rod for springs he may never reach.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : I never did understand ambition for high office. Not to be despised if it comes your way, but the real challenge of life is to touch the superlative entirely on your own. No outsider can help you. The approval of friends is helpful. It gives you confidence and it gives you hope. But don't you youngsters hope for the wrong thing.

• Oliver Wendell Holmes : Life without you is no life at all.