Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Quotes & Sayings

41 most famous Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. quotes and sayings (judge). These are the first 10 quotes we have.

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

“The language of judicial decision is mainly the language of logic. And the logical method and form flatter that longing for certainty and for repose which is in every human mind. But certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.”

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

“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.”

“Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.”

“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.”

“Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.”

“Beware how you take away hope from another human being.”

“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.”