The noblest service comes from nameless hands; and the best servant does his work unseen. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. More Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. More Quotes From Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. nicknamesfatenames Any tax is a discouragement and therefore a regulation so far as it goes. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. discouragementtaxesregulation To an imagination of any scope the most far reaching form of power is not money, it is the command of ideas Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. reachingimaginationideas 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. democracyarrogancefeelings The ideas of the classics, so far as living, are our commonplaces. It is the modern books that give us the latest and most profound conceptions. It seems to me rather a lazy makeshift to mumble over the familiar. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. readingbookideas Who does not feel that Nansen's account of his search for the Pole rather loses than gains in ideal satisfaction by the pretense of a few trifling acquisitions for science? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. gainssatisfactiondoe What I wouldn't give to be seventy again! Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. seventies60th-birthdaygiving The thing I want to do is put as many new ideas into the law as I can, to show how particular solutions involve general theory, and to do it with style. I should like to be admitted to be the greatest jurist in the world. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stylelawideas To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. lovelifesex Young man, the secret of my success is that an early age I discovered that I was not God. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. secretmenfunny History has to be rewritten because history is the selection of those threads of causes or antecedents that we are interested in. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. threadcauseshistory Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. agingintelligentinspiration The difference between gossip and philosophy lies only in one's way of taking a fact. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. differencesphilosophylying Longevity is having a chronic disease - and taking care of it. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. careleadershipsports I dare say that I have worked off my fundamental formula on you that the chief end of man is to frame general propositions and that no general proposition is worth a damn. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. chiefsendsmen 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. moralityfeetpigs It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. eugenicscuttingwaiting 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. pitfallsrightslaw The very minute a thought is threatened with publicity it seems to shrink towards mediocrity. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. publicitymediocrityideas You hear that boy laughing?you think he's all fun; But the angels laugh, too, at the good he has done; The children laugh loud as they troop to his call, And the poor man that knows him laughs loudest of all. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. angelfunchildren
