Quote

Modesty and reverence are no less virtues of freemen than the democratic feeling which will submit neither to arrogance nor to servility.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

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.
Neither
Servility
Democracy
Freeman
Virtue
Modesty
Feeling
Submit
Less
Arrogance
Feelings
Virtues
Reverence
Democratic
Freemen

More quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Image
To be civilized is to be potentially master of all possible ideas, and that means that one has got beyond being shocked, although one preserves one's own moral aesthetic preferences.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
A man's opinions are generally of much more value than his arguments.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
The worst of a modern stylish mansion is that it has no place for ghosts.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
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.
Image
Any tax is a discouragement and therefore a regulation so far as it goes.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
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.
Image
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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
Men are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before they always did, they always will and if you don't make it of wood, you must make it of words.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
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.
Image
The root of joy, as of duty, is to put all one's powers towards some great end.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
Science ... in other words, knowledge-is not the enemy of religion for, if so, then religion would mean ignorance. But it is often the antagonist of school-divinity.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
There was never an idea started that woke up men out of their stupid indifference but its originator was spoken of as a crank.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
Every calling is great when greatly pursued.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
The individual will always be a minority. If a man is in a minority of one, we lock him up.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Image
A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than command the latter.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.