Home › Authors › Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Quotes
1841–1935 United States
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (8 March 1841 – 6 March 1935) was an American jurist and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932; he was often called "The Great Dissenter", and was the son of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
United States Judges Lawyers Non-fiction authors Philosophers Also known as: Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr., Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Random Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. quote
97 quotes
Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.
The Path of the Law (1897)
State interference is an evil, where it cannot be shown to be a good.
Nature has but one judgment on wrong conduct — if you can call that a judgment which seemingly has no reference to conduct as such — the judgment of death.
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.
The power to tax is not the power to destroy while this Court sits.
A good catchword can obscure analysis for fifty years.
To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
The aim of the law is not to punish sins, but is to prevent certain external results.
Free competition is worth more to society than it costs.
A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure. It offers a necessity of life that must be rationed among those who have power over it.
Three generations of imbeciles are enough.
Constitutions are intended to preserve practical and substantial rights, not to maintain theories.
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.
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
The degree of civilization which a people has reached, no doubt, is marked by their anxiety to do as they would be done by.
To rest upon a formula is a slumber that, prolonged, means death.
The great act of faith is when a man decides that he is not God.
A second class mind, but a first class temperament.
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire.
In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire (1884)
Topics Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. is quoted on
Works