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Law5 quotes
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. · 1880It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1897The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1880The law embodies the story of a nation's development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1880The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1919Legal theory5 quotes
It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1897The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1880The law embodies the story of a nation's development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1880General propositions do not decide concrete cases. The decision will depend on a judgement or intuition more subtle than any articulate major premise. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1905The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1919Constitutional law2 quotes
The government ought not to use evidence obtained and only obtainable, by a criminal act...for my part I think it a less evil that some criminals could escape than that, the Government should play an ignoble part. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1928The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1919Nature of law2 quotes
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. · 1880The law embodies the story of a nation's development through many centuries, and it cannot be dealt with as if it contained only the axioms and corollaries of a book of mathematics. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1880Burnout1 quote
Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1831Certainty1 quote
Certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1897Evolution of law1 quote
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. · 1880First Amendment1 quote
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic... The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1919Fourth Amendment1 quote
The government ought not to use evidence obtained and only obtainable, by a criminal act...for my part I think it a less evil that some criminals could escape than that, the Government should play an ignoble part. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1928Free exchange of ideas1 quote
But when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas—that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate, is the theory of our Constitution. It is an experiment, as all life is an experiment. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1919Freedom of thought1 quote
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. · 1929Insanity1 quote
Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1831Life1 quote
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1911Meaning of words1 quote
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 the time in which it is used. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1918Men and women1 quote
It will need more than the Nineteenth Amendment to convince me that there are no differences between men and women, or that legislation cannot take those differences into account. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1923Nature of life1 quote
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1911Pluralism1 quote
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. · 1929Power1 quote
The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power. The prize of the general is not a bigger tent, but command. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1913Taxes1 quote
Taxes are what we pay for civilized society. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1927Women's equality1 quote
It will need more than the Nineteenth Amendment to convince me that there are no differences between men and women, or that legislation cannot take those differences into account. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1923Words1 quote
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 the time in which it is used. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. · 1918