Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932, and as Acting Chief Justice of the United States January–February 1930. Noted for his long service, his concise and pithy opinions and his deference to the decisions of elected legislatures, he is one of the most widely cited United States Supreme Court justices in history, particularly for his "clear and present danger" opinion for a...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJudge
Date of Birth8 March 1841
CountryUnited States of America
Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.
Reason means truth and those who are not governed by it take the chance that someday the sunken fact will rip the bottom out of their boat.
The history of what the law has been is necessary to the knowledge of what the law is.
There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Beware of making your moral staple consist of the negative virtues.
The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.
Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.
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.
From forty to fifty a man must move upward, or the natural falling off in the vigor of life will carry him rapidly downward.
The root of joy, as of duty, is to put all one's powers towards some great end.
The provisions of the Constitution are not mathematical formulas having their essence in their form; they are organic, living institutions transplanted from English soil. Their significance is vital, not formal; it is to be gathered not simply by taking the words and a dictionary, but by considering their origin and the line of their growth.
Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the rose, with sweets in every fold.
But the moment you turn a corner you see another straight stretch ahead and there comes some further challenge to your ambition.
On every stem, on every leaf,... and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part.