Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
History has to be rewritten because history is the selection of those threads of causes or antecedents that we are interested in.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Age: 93 †
Born: 1841
Born: March 8
Died: 1935
Died: March 6
Judge
Jurist
Lawyer
Philosopher
Politician
University Teacher
Boston
Massachusetts
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Oliver W. Holmes
Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
Holmes
Oliver Wendell
Jr.
Oliver Wendell
Jr. Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Jr
Oliver Holmes
Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Jr.
Interested
Causes
History
Antecedents
Rewritten
Threads
Selection
Thread
More quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The common law is not a brooding omnipresence in the sky, but the articulate voice of some sovereign or quasi sovereign that can be identified although some decisions with which I have disagreed seem to me to have forgotten the fact.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The thing I want to do is put as many new ideas into the law as I can, to show how particular solutions involve general theory, and to do it with style. I should like to be admitted to be the greatest jurist in the world.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Society is always trying in some way to grind us down to a single flat surface.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
People talk fundamentals and superlatives and then make some changes of detail.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Young man, the secret of my success is that an early age I discovered that I was not God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
We must think things not words, or at least we must constantly translate our words into the facts for which they stand, if we are to keep to the real and the true.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
In my opinion, economists and sociologists are the people to whom we ought to turn more than we do for instruction in the grounds and foundations of all rational decisions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Old age is like an opium dream. Nothing seems real except the unreal.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
It is very grand to die in harness, but it is very pleasant to have the tight straps unbuckled and the heavy collar lifted from the neck and shoulders.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The language of judicial decision is mainly the language of logic. And the logical method and form flatter that longing for certainty and for repose which is in every human mind. But certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Free competition is worth more to society than it costs.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
If you can eat sawdust without butter, you can be a success in the law.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Under bad manners, as under graver faults, lies very commonly an overestimate of our special individuality, as distinguished from our generic humanity.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The mark of a civilized man is his willingness to re-examine his most cherished beliefs.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
A man's opinions are generally of much more value than his arguments.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
