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For my part I think it is a less evil that some criminals should escape, than that the government should play an ignoble part.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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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.
Thinking
Criminals
Escape
Less
Evil
Part
Government
Play
Think
Ignoble
More quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The man of action has the present, but the thinker controls the future.
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Science is the topography of ignorance. From a few elevated points we triangulate vast spaces, inclosing infinite unknown details. We cast the lead, and draw up a little sand from abysses we may never reach with our dredges.
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I despise making the most of one's time. Half of the pleasures of life consist of the opportunities one has neglected.
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In order to know whether a human being is young or old, offer it food of different kinds at short intervals. If young, it will eat anything at any hour of the day or night.
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Most of the things we do, we do for no better reason than that our fathers have done them or our neighbors do them, and the same is true of a larger part than what we suspect of what we think.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
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Our morality seems to be only a check on the ultimate domination of force, just as our politeness is a check on the impulse of every pig to put his feet in the trough.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
To an imagination of any scope the most far reaching form of power is not money, it is the command of ideas
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The joy of life is to put out one's power in some natural and useful or harmless way. There is no other. And the real misery is not to do this.
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The individual will always be a minority. If a man is in a minority of one, we lock him up.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Nothing can be so perfect while we possess it as it will seem when remembered.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves the necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Poverty comes pleading not for charity, for the most part, but imploring us to find a purchaser for its unmarketable wares.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
I dare say that I have worked off my fundamental formula on you that the chief end of man is to frame general propositions and that no general proposition is worth a damn.
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.
