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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.

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.
Joy
Justice
Natural
Power
Real
Harmless
Way
Useful
Life
Diversity
Misery

More quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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The man of action has the present, but the thinker controls the future.
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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.
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We must think things not words, or at least we must constantly translate our words into the facts for which they stand, if we are to keep to the real and the true.
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To us who remain behind is left this day of memories. Every year--in the full tide of spring, at the height of the symphony of flowers and love and life--there comes a pause, and through the silence we hear the lonely pipe of death.
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We expect more of ourselves than we have any right to.
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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.
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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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A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than command the latter.
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Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.
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To rest upon a formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.
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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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There is one gratification an old author can afford a certain class of critics that namely, of comparing him as he is with what he was. It is a pleasure to mediocrity to have its superiors brought within range.
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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.
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The root of joy, as of duty, is to put all one's powers towards some great end.
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The mark of a civilized man is his willingness to re-examine his most cherished beliefs.
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Apologizing - a very desperate habit - one that is rarely cured. Apology is only egotism wrong side out.
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Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned.
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Poverty comes pleading not for charity, for the most part, but imploring us to find a purchaser for its unmarketable wares.
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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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We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.
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