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Our test of truth is a reference to either a present or imagined future majority in favour of our view.

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.
Views
Present
Reference
Either
Favour
Future
Imagined
Truth
Test
Tests
Majority
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More quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.
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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.
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I know of no teachers so powerful and persuasive as the little army of specialists. They carry no banners, they beat no drums but where they are men learn that bustle and push are not the equals of quiet genius and serene mastery.
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A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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General propositions do not decide concrete cases. The decision will depend on a judgment or intuition more subtle than any articulate major premise.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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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.
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To know is not less than to feel.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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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.
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The world has its fling at lawyers sometimes, but its very denial is an admission. It feels, what I believe to be the truth, that of all secular professions this has the highest standards.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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Young man, the secret of my success is that an early age I discovered that I was not God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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Certitude is not the test of certainty.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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Be willing to commit yourself to a course, perhaps a long and hard one, without being able to foresee exactly where you will come out.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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Longevity is having a chronic disease - and taking care of it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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Even the wisest woman you talk to is ignorant of something you may know, but an elegant woman never forgets her elegance.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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I have always sought to guide the future-but it is very lonely sometimes trying to play God.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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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.
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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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.