Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

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.

A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles.

There is no friend like an old friend who has shared our morning days, no greeting like his welcome, no homage like his praise.

Any two philosophers can tell each other all they know in two hours.

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.

A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.

The rule of joy and the law of duty seem to me all one.

Carve every word before you let it fall.

The greatest act of faith is when a man understands he is not God.

Alas for those that never sing But die with all their music in them

Apologizing - a very desperate habit - one that is rarely cured. Apology is only egotism wrong side out.

The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power.

I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy.

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.

To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge.

Every idea is an incitement... eloquence may set fire to reason.

The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract.

A child's education should begin at least one hundred years before he is born.

Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at the touch, nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.

Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.

The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.

Nothing is so commonplace has the wish to be remarkable.

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.

I despise making the most of one's time. Half of the pleasures of life consist of the opportunities one has neglected.

On the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself, as against the saints who deny it.

Man's mind, stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.

Life is action and passion; therefore, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of the time, at peril of being judged not to have lived.

Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife.

People talk fundamentals and superlatives and then make some changes of detail.

Young man, the secret of my success is that an early age I discovered that I was not God.

To be seventy years young is sometimes for more cheerful and hopeful than to be forty years old.

Young man, the secret of my success is that at early age I discovered that I was not God.

The rules of evidence in the main are based on experience, logic, and common sense, less hampered by history than some parts of the substantive law.

As life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time, at the peril of being not to have lived.

I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealizing envy - I don't disparage envy, but I don't accept it as legitimately my master.

A new and valid idea is worth more than a regiment and fewer men can furnish the former than command the latter.

We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.

It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure.

The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins.

Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.

The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.

Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.

Don't be 'consistent,' but be simply true.

Every event that a man would master must be mounted on the run, and no man ever caught the reins of a thought except as it galloped past him.

A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.

Beware how you take away hope from any human being.

The great act of faith is when a man decides he is not God.

You make me chuckle when you say that you are no longer young, that you have turned twenty-four. A man is or may be young to after sixty, and not old before eighty.

If wine tells truth and so have said the wise it makes me laugh to think how brandy lies

Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to be perfectly logical. If you have no doubt of your premises or your power and want a certain result with all your heart you naturally express your wishes in law and sweep away all opposition.

To be 70 years young is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful than to be 40 years old.

Certainty generally is illusion and repose is not the destiny of man.

It seems to me that at this time we need education in the obvious more than the investigation of the obscure.

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.

Any tax is a discouragement and therefore a regulation so far as it goes.

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.

The jury has the power to bring a verdict in the teeth of both law and fact.

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