Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Quotes - Page 6

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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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Lying, Humanity, Individuality

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There is nothing earthly that lasts so well, as money. A man's learning dies with him, as does his virtues fade out of remembrance, but the dividends on the stocks he bequeaths to his children live and keep his memory green.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Money, Children, Memories

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From forty to fifty a man must move upward, or the natural falling off in the vigor of life will carry him rapidly downward.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Moving, Fall, Men

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Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Inspiration, Intelligent, Aging

"The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table". Book by Oliver Wendell Holmes, ch. VI, 1858.

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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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Mean, Ideas, Moral

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Life is a fatal complaint, and an eminently contagious one.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Life, Success, Inspire

"Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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There is no time like the old time, when you and I were young!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Sister, Sibling, Young

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Taxes are what we pay for civilized society

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Political, Society, Paying Taxes

Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas v. Collector of Internal Revenue (dissenting opinion) (1927)

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A man's opinions are generally of much more value than his arguments.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Men, Opinion, Argument

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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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Father, Thinking, Done

"The Path of the Law". Address to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Harvard Law Review, Volume 10, March 25, 1897.

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One of the eternal conflicts out of which life is made up is that between the effort of every man to get the most he can for his services, and that of society, disguised under the name of capital, to get his services for the least possible return.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Men, Names, Effort

"Vegelahn v. Guntner, 167 Mass. 92, 44 N.E. 1077, 1081". Voicing the opinion of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, 1896.

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The history of what the law has been is necessary to the knowledge of what the law is.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Law, Has Beens

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When a man holds his tongue it does not signify much. But when a woman dispenses with the office of the mighty member, when she sheathed her natural weapon at a trying moment, it means that she trusts to still more formidable enginery; to tears it may be, a solvent more powerful than that with which Hannibal softened the alpine rocks.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Powerful, Women, Mean

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If wine tells truth - and so have said the wise, It makes me laugh to think how brandy lies!

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Wise, Lying, Wine

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Old age is like an opium dream. Nothing seems real except the unreal.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Dream, Real, Age

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Systems die; instincts remain.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Innovation, Intuition, Aging

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Modesty and reverence are no less virtues of freemen than the democratic feeling which will submit neither to arrogance nor to servility.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Feelings, Arrogance, Democracy

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I should like to see any kind of man, distinguishable from a gorilla, that some good and even pretty woman could not shape a husband out of.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Husband, Men, Pretty Woman

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Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Men, Ideas, Mind

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But the word "right" is one of the most deceptive of pitfalls; it is so easy to slip from a qualified meaning in the premise to an unqualified one in the conclusion. Most rights are qualified.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Rights, Law, Pitfalls

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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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Knowledge, Mean, School

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Research and writing are lonely occupations. It is easy to become discouraged in solitary confinement.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Lonely, Writing, Research

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The preacher's garment is cut according to the pattern of that of the hearers, for the most part.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Cutting, Hypocrisy, Patterns

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The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Fall, Autumn, August

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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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Life, Opportunity, Half

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Born: March 8, 1841
Died: March 6, 1935
Occupation: Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Cite this Page: Citation

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