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Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Quotes

Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

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Famous Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Quotes

“It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

IfsWorldKindEnoughThreeWaitingPrinciplesCuttingGenerationsCrimeBroadsContinuingTubesOffspringEugenicsDegeneratesCompulsoryImbecilesVaccinationsImbecilityThree GenerationsSterilization
Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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“Certitude leads to violence. This is a proposition that has an easy application and a difficult one. The easy application is to ideoologues, dogmatists, and bullies--people who think that their rigtness justifies them in imposing on anyone who does not happen to suscribe to their particular ideology, dogma or notion of turf. If the conviction of rightness is powerful enough, resistance to it will be met, sooner or later by force. There are people like this in every sphere of life, and it is natural to feel that the world would be a better place without them!”

PeopleIfsThinkingWorldFeelsDoeEnoughHappensWould BeForceEasyDifficultNaturalPowerfulViolenceParticularMetsNotionConvictionResistanceIdeologyJustifyApplicationSpheresDogmaSooner Or LaterPropositionsBullyBetter PlaceImposingCertitudeTurf
Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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“With all humility, I think, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Infinitely more important than the vain attempt to love one's neighbor as one's self. If you want to hit a bird on the wing you must have all your will in focus, you must not be thinking about yourself, and equally, you must not be thinking about your neighbor; you must be living with your eye on that bird. Every achievement is a bird on the wing.”

IfsThinkingWantImportantSelfHandsSeemsMightEyeFocusHumilityAchievementBirdWingsNeighborSelfishVainAbout YourselfUnrealThinking About YouThinking About Yourself
Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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“The provisions of the Constitution are not mathematical formulas having their essence in their form; they are organic, living institutions transplanted from English soil. Their significance is vital, not formal; it is to be gathered not simply by taking the words and a dictionary, but by considering their origin and the line of their growth.”

GovernmentFormGrowthLinesEssenceConstitutionInstitutionsMathematicalSoilSignificanceFormulasConsideringFormalDictionaryProvision
Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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“Why should you row a boat race? Why endure the long months of pain in preparation for a fierce half hour that will leave you all but dead? Does anyone ask the question? Is there anyone who would not go through all the costs, and more, for the moment when anguish breaks into triumph or even for the glory of having nobly lost? Is life less than a boat race? If a man will give the blood in his body to win the one, will he spend all the might of his soul to prevail in the other?”

IfsMenGivingShouldLongDoeSoulMomentsBodyMightPainAsksWinningLostHoursRaceHalfBreakBloodMonthsCostGloryEndureBoatPreparationTriumphFierceAnguishRowingHalf Hours
Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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“Our dead brothers and sisters still live for us and bid us think of life, not death-of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and glory of Spring. As I listen, the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil, our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope, and will.”

ThinkingStillsDeathJoyPassionEvilSoundDestinyYouthBrotherSpringGloryNotesAwfulGood And EvilDaringUnseenBrothers And SistersOrchestraTrumpetsChorusBegin AgainSeen And Unseen
Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
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