Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes was the name of two prominent men, father and son:...
decision intuition judgment
General propositions do not decide concrete cases. The decision will depend on a judgment or intuition more subtle than any articulate major premise.
essence government growth
The provisions of the Constitution are not mathematical formulas having their essence in their form; they are organic, living institutions transplanted from English soil. Their significance is vital, not formal; it is to be gathered not simply by taking the words and a dictionary, but by considering their origin and the line of their growth.
moving fall men
From forty to fifty a man must move upward, or the natural falling off in the vigor of life will carry him rapidly downward.
life dwelling-place cells
We are all sentenced to capital punishment for the crime of living, and though the condemned cell of our earthly existence is but a narrow and bare dwelling-place, we have adjusted ourselves to it, and made it tolerably comfortable for the little while we are to be confined in it.
law has-beens
The history of what the law has been is necessary to the knowledge of what the law is.
peace ideas world
The only condition of peace in this world is to have no ideas, or, at least not to express them.
life existence complaints
Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.
thinking discovery views
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.
aging instinct dies
Systems die; instincts remain.
faith humility men
The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.
voice race goal
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.
negative moral ethics
Beware of making your moral staple consist of the negative virtues.
education forget wells
There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
science expression advice
We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.