Our morality seems to be only a check on the ultimate domination of force, just as our politeness is a check on the impulse of every pig to put his feet in the trough. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. More Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. More Quotes From Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wise inspirational travel If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. freedom attachment hate Certitude leads to violence. This is a proposition that has an easy application and a difficult one. The easy application is to ideoologues, dogmatists, and bullies--people who think that their rigtness justifies them in imposing on anyone who does not happen to suscribe to their particular ideology, dogma or notion of turf. If the conviction of rightness is powerful enough, resistance to it will be met, sooner or later by force. There are people like this in every sphere of life, and it is natural to feel that the world would be a better place without them! Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. powerful people thinking Success. Is not the position where you are standing, but which direction you are going. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. insperational where-you-are position 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. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. motivational lying moving My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. swings fists noses This is a court of law, not a court of justice. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. court law justice I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. paying-taxes taxation civilization The mark of a civilized man is his willingness to re-examine his most cherished beliefs. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. mark belief men I think that we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death, unless they so imminently threaten immediate interference with the lawful and pressing purposes of the law that an immediate check is required to save the country. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. believe country thinking Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. dog Why should you row a boat race? Why endure the long months of pain in preparation for a fierce half hour that will leave you all but dead? Does anyone ask the question? Is there anyone who would not go through all the costs, and more, for the moment when anguish breaks into triumph or even for the glory of having nobly lost? Is life less than a boat race? If a man will give the blood in his body to win the one, will he spend all the might of his soul to prevail in the other? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. pain winning men The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. done character life The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. liberty fire men If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I wouldn't pass it around. Wouldn't be doing anybody a favor. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't say embrace trouble. That's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say, meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. favors trouble enemy Three generations of imbeciles are enough. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. imbeciles generations three If you can eat sawdust without butter, you can be a success in the law. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. sawdust ifs law 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. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. growth government essence The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. logic law life For my part I think it is a less evil that some criminals should escape, than that the government should play an ignoble part. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. government play thinking
