Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · Skopia

Quotes

16

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Legal writing

Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas v. Collector of Internal Revenue · 1927

★ 6.9

Supreme Court opinion · Legal opinion · Legal writing

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.

United States v. Schwimmer · 1929

★ 6.0

Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

1911

★ 5.3

The truth is, that the law is always approaching, and never reaching, consistency. It is forever adopting new principles from life at one end, and it always retains old ones from history at the other, which have not yet been absorbed or sloughed off. It will become entirely consistent only when it ceases to grow.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

1880

★ 5.1

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