WIST Quotations

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “Ideals and Doubts,” Illinois Law Review (May 1915)

Dave — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:14:23 +0000

To have doubted one’s own first principles is the work of a civilized man.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Ideals and Doubts,” Illinois Law Review (May 1915)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “Ideals and Doubts,” Illinois Law Review, Vol. X (1915)

Dave — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:54:04 +0000

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Ideals and Doubts,” Illinois Law Review, Vol. X (1915)

Full text.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Memorial Day address, Keene, New Hampshire (30 May 1884)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Memorial Day address, Keene, New Hampshire (30 May 1884)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:42:24 +0000

It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Memorial Day address, Keene, New Hampshire (30 May 1884)

Speaking of what the Independence Day (Fourth of July) has become in the US, separated by time from the initial cause it celebrated.

See Harding and Kennedy.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Memorial Day speech, Keene, New Hampshire (30 May 1884)

Dave — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:30:30 +0000

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“In Our Youth Our Hearts Were Touched With Fire,” Memorial Day speech, Keene, New Hampshire (30 May 1884)

Full text.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “Law in Science and Science in Law,” Harvard Law Review (1899)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Judges are commonly elderly men, and are more likely to hate at sight any analysis to which they are not accustomed, and which disturbs repose of mind, than to fall in love with novelties.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Law in Science and Science in Law,” Harvard Law Review (1899)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “Natural Law,” Collected Legal Papers (1921)

Dave — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:01:17 +0000

Deep-seated preferences cannot be argued about — you cannot argue a man into liking a glass of beer — and therefore, when differences are sufficiently far reaching, we try to kill the other man rather than let him have his way. But that is perfectly consistent with admitting that, so far as appears, his grounds are just as good as ours.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Natural Law,” Collected Legal Papers (1921)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “Natural Law,” Harvard Law Review (1918-11)

Dave — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:56:26 +0000

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Natural Law,” Harvard Law Review (1918-11)

Legal citation: 32 Harvard Law Review 40, 41 (1918).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “Reminiscences of a Holmes Secretary” (W. Barton Leach) (16 Oct 1935)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The object of philosophy is to prove that you are right in doing what you want.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“Reminiscences of a Holmes Secretary” (W. Barton Leach) (16 Oct 1935)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “The Class of ’61,” speech on 50th anniversary of graduating from Harvard (28 Jun 1911)

Dave — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:20:00 +0000

To act is to affirm the worth of an end.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“The Class of ’61,” speech on 50th anniversary of graduating from Harvard (28 Jun 1911)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “The Path of the Law,” Harvard Law Review (Feb 1897)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

… [L]onging for certainty and for repose [is] in every human mind. But certainty generally is an illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“The Path of the Law,” Harvard Law Review (Feb 1897)

Citation 10 Harvard Law Review 457 (1897).

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “The Path of the Law,” speech, Boston University School of Law on (8 Jan 1897)

Dave — Wed, 20 May 2015 13:49:56 +0000

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“The Path of the Law,” speech, Boston University School of Law on (8 Jan 1897)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- “The Path of the Law”, 10 Harvard Law Review 457 (1897)

Dave — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:43:58 +0000

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. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“The Path of the Law”, 10 Harvard Law Review 457 (1897)

Full text.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- (Attributed (1931))

Dave — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:11:20 +0000

Oh, to be seventy again.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed (1931))

On seeing an attractive lady on his 95th birthday. Also given as "sixty" and "eighty, and attributed to others as well. Alternate: "What I wouldn't give to be seventy again."

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it around. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don’t embrace trouble; that’s as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say: meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it, and had better be on speaking terms with it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:13:58 +0000

Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:45:18 +0000

I happen to prefer champagne to ditchwater, but there is no reason to suppose that the cosmos does.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Attributed)

Quoted by William F Buckley, Jr., in The National Review, "Publisher's Statement" (first issue, 19 Nov 1955)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- (Spurious)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
(Spurious)

Usually attributed to Holmes (or Abraham Lincoln, or John Stuart Mill), but actually first raised in legal commentary by Zechariah Chafee, "Freedom of Speech in Wartime", 32 Harvard Law Review 932, 957 (Jun 1919):

Each side takes the position of the man who was arrested for swinging his arms and hitting another in the nose, and asked the judge if he did not have a right to swing his arms in a free country. “Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.”

There are earlier versions in non-legal contexts dating back decades earlier, often in arguments for Temperance and Prohibition. See here for more background.

Variants:

"The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins."
"The right to swing my arms in any direction ends where your nose begins."
"My right to swing my fist ends where your nose begins."

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919) [dissent]

Dave — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 02:11:28 +0000

Persecution for the expression of opinions seems to me 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 allow opposition by speech seems to indicate that you think the speech impotent, as when a man says that he has squared the circle, or that you do not care wholeheartedly for the result, or that you doubt either your power or your premises.

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. Every year, if not every day, we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. While that experiment is part of our system, 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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919) [dissent]

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) [Dissent]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) [Dissent]

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) [Dissent]

Dave — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:17:21 +0000

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) [Dissent]

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Brown v. United States, 256 U.S. 335, 343 (1921)

Dave — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:08:10 +0000

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Brown v. United States, 256 U.S. 335, 343 (1921)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 170 Mass. 18, 20 (1897)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The aim of the law is not to punish sins, but is to prevent certain external results.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 170 Mass. 18, 20 (1897)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Compania General De Tabacos De Filipinas v. Collector of Internal Revenue, 275 U.S. 87, 100 (1927) [Dissent]

Dave — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:39:41 +0000

Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Compania General De Tabacos De Filipinas v. Collector of Internal Revenue, 275 U.S. 87, 100 (1927) [Dissent]

Full text is "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society, including the chance to insure.

References are also found (without citation) to a 1904 speech, "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society" (this variation is quoted by the IRS above the entrance of their headquarters). Bartlett's (1980) cites the above wording, but incorrectly claims it was in 1904.

In Felix Frankfurter, Mr. Justice Holmes and the Supreme Court (1938), Holmes is quoted as rebuking a secretary's query about hating to pay taxes: "No, young feller. I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization."

More information here.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45, 76 (1905) [Dissent]

Dave — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:35:59 +0000

The accident of our finding certain opinions natural and familiar, or novel, and even shocking, ought not to conclude our judgment upon the question whether statutes embodying them conflict with the Constitution of the United States.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45, 76 (1905) [Dissent]

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- New York Trust Co. v. Eisner, 256 U.S. 345, 349 (1921)

Dave — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:19:09 +0000

[A] page of history is worth a volume of logic.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
New York Trust Co. v. Eisner, 256 U.S. 345, 349 (1921)

Full text.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Schenck v. United States (1919)

Dave — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:55:21 +0000

The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Schenck v. United States (1919)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Schenck v. United States (3 Mar 1919)

Dave — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 10:50:56 +0000

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Schenck v. United States (3 Mar 1919)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- The Professor at the Breakfast Table

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

People who honestly mean to be true really contradict themselves much more than those who try to be “consistent.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
The Professor at the Breakfast Table

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Towne v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 425 (1918)

Dave — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:45:31 +0000

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. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Towne v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 425 (1918)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644 (1929) [Dissent]

Dave — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:51:36 +0000

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. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644 (1929) [Dissent]

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644, 654-55 (1929)

Dave — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:46:15 +0000

Some of her answers might excite popular prejudice, but 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. I think we should adhere to that principle with regard to admission into, as well as life within, this country.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644, 654-55 (1929)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Vegelahn v. Guntner, 167 Mass. 92, 44 N.E. 1077, 1080 (1896)

Dave — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:37:22 +0000

Free competition is worth more to society than it costs.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Vegelahn v. Guntner, 167 Mass. 92, 44 N.E. 1077, 1080 (1896)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Comment (8 Mar 1931)

Dave — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 13:22:04 +0000

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Comment (8 Mar 1931)

When asked by a reporter on his 90th birthday.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Letter (1902-10-24) to Lady Georgina Deffell Pollock

Dave — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:01:07 +0000

The only simplicity for which I would give a straw is that which is on the other side of the complex — not that which never has divined it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Letter (1902-10-24) to Lady Georgina Deffell Pollock

In context, criticizing those who praise simplicity (at least in literature, if not beyond), except that simplicity which results after a synthesis of the complex.

Collected in Mark Howe (ed.), Holmes-Pollock Letters: The Correspondence of Mr. Justice Holmes and Sir Frederick Pollock, 1874-1932 (1961).

This quotation is frequently misattributed to his father, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. It also has (at least two) incorrect variants that are seen more frequently on the Internet:

For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn't give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.

I wouldn’t give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity; I would give my right arm for the simplicity on the far side of complexity.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Letter to William James (24 Mar 1907)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

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

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Letter to William James (24 Mar 1907)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Speech (1897-01-18), “The Path of the Law,” Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts

Dave — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 12:11:00 +0000

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.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Speech (1897-01-18), “The Path of the Law,” Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts