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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.

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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.
Facts
Sky
Disagreed
Seems
Forgotten
Brooding
Seem
Articulate
Decision
Identified
Law
Sovereignty
Common
Sovereign
Fact
Decisions
Omnipresence
Voice
Although
Quasi

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There is no friend like the old friend, who has shared our morning days, No greeting like his welcome, no homage like his praise: Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold.
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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.
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There was never an idea started that woke up men out of their stupid indifference but its originator was spoken of as a crank.
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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.
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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.
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A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
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We expect more of ourselves than we have any right to.
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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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Beware of making your moral staple consist of the negative virtues.
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Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.
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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.
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But the moment you turn a corner you see another straight stretch ahead and there comes some further challenge to your ambition.
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Most people have died before they expire died to all earthly longings, so that the last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already deserted mansion.
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Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.
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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.
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My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins.
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It's a good thing to be rich and a good thing to be strong, but it is a better thing to be beloved of many friends.
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The individual will always be a minority. If a man is in a minority of one, we lock him up.
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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.
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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.
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