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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.

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.
Pleasure
Afford
Within
Author
Certain
Compare
Range
Comparing
Critics
Namely
Brought
Gratification
Criticism
Mediocrity
Class
Superiors

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The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.
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To rest upon a formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.
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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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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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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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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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We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.
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Where we stand is not as important as the direction in which we are moving.
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I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy - I don't disparage envy, but I don't accept it as legitimately my master.
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Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.
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In my opinion, economists and sociologists are the people to whom we ought to turn more than we do for instruction in the grounds and foundations of all rational decisions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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Even for practical purposes theory generally turns out the most important thing in the end.
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I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.
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To think great thoughts you must be heroes as well as idealists.
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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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Certitude is not the test of certainty.
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Our test of truth is a reference to either a present or imagined future majority in favour of our view.
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The mark of a civilized man is his willingness to re-examine his most cherished beliefs.
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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.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.