Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932, and as Acting Chief Justice of the United States January–February 1930. Noted for his long service, his concise and pithy opinions and his deference to the decisions of elected legislatures, he is one of the most widely cited United States Supreme Court justices in history, particularly for his "clear and present danger" opinion for a...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJudge
Date of Birth8 March 1841
CountryUnited States of America
The history of intellectual growth and discovery clearly demonstrates the need for unfettered freedom, the right to think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable. To curtail free expression strikes twice at intellectual freedom, for whoever deprives another of the right to state unpopular views necessarily also deprives others of the right to listen to those views.
Systems die; instincts remain.
The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.
The riders in a race do not stop when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voices of friends and say to oneself, The work is done.
Beware of making your moral staple consist of the negative virtues.
There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.
Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.
The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.
Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention.
As for the excellent little wretches who grow up in what they are taught, with never a scruple or a query, ... they signify nothing in the intellectual life of the race.
Pretty much all law consists in forbidding men to do something that they want to do.
Every man is an omnibus in which his ancestors ride.
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all.