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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.

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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.
Great
Campaigns
Men
Greatness
Figure
Vary
Figures
Strategic
Society
Represents
Point
Nerves
History
Consists
Part
Campaign

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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.
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For him in vain the envious seasons roll Who bears eternal summer in his soul.
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I have always sought to guide the future-but it is very lonely sometimes trying to play God.
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I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country.
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If you can eat sawdust without butter, you can be a success in the law.
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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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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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Men, like peaches and pears, grow sweet a little while before they begin to decay.
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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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My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins.
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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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Liberty is often a heavy burden on a man. It involves the necessity for perpetual choice which is the kind of labor men have always dreaded.
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Longevity is having a chronic disease - and taking care of it.
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Our morality seems to be only a check on the ultimate domination of force, just as our politeness is a check on the impulse of every pig to put his feet in the trough.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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People talk fundamentals and superlatives and then make some changes of detail.
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It is perfectly easy to be original by violating the laws of decency and the canons of good taste.
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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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Under bad manners, as under graver faults, lies very commonly an overestimate of our special individuality, as distinguished from our generic humanity.
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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.
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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.
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