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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.

— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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More quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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.

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.

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

If the church ... does not make God's liberation of the oppressed central in its mission and proclamation, how can it rest easy with a condemned criminal as the dominant symbol of its message?

James H. Cone Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (1986)

It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a mistake in punishing.

Muhammad

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.