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
Every man is an omnibus in which his ancestors ride.
Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all.
Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.
I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
The law is the witness and external deposit of our moral life. Its history is the history of the moral development of the race.
Apologizing - a very desperate habit - one that is rarely cured. Apology is only egotism wrong side out.
To brag little, to lose well, / To crow gently if in luck, / To pay up, to own up, / To shut up if beaten, / Are the virtues of a sportingman.
Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.
Reason means truth and those who are not governed by it take the chance that someday the sunken fact will rip the bottom out of their boat.
The mode by which the inevitable comes to pass is effort.
Be willing to commit yourself to a course, perhaps a long and hard one, without being able to foresee exactly where you will come out.
To be master of any branch of knowledge, you must master those which lie next to it, and thus to know anything you must know all.