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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.
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
There is in all men a demand for the superlative, so much so that the poor devil that has no other way of reaching it attains it by getting drunk.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
One of the eternal conflicts out of which life is made up is that between the effort of every man to get the most he can for his services, and that of society, disguised under the name of capital, to get his services for the least possible return.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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.
Every man is an omnibus in which his ancestors ride.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
To know is not less than to feel.
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.
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.
Leisure only means a chance to do other jobs that demand attention.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
A great man represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in his being there.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Go on, fair Science soon to thee Shall Nature yield her idle boast Her vulgar lingers formed a tree, But thou hast trained it to a post.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Apologizing - a very desperate habit - one that is rarely cured. Apology is only egotism wrong side out.
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.
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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power. The prize of the general is not a bigger tent, but command.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The great end of being is to harmonize man with the order of things, and the church has been a good pitch-pipe, and may be so still.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The man of action has the present, but the thinker controls the future.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
The very minute a thought is threatened with publicity it seems to shrink towards mediocrity.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Young men know the rules, but old men know the exceptions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
