197 Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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.

Systems die; instincts remain.

Most people have died before they expire; died to all earthly longings, so that the last breath is only, as it were, the locking of the door of the already deserted mansion.

The mark of a civilized man is his willingness to re-examine his most cherished beliefs.

I know of no teachers so powerful and persuasive as the little army of specialists. They carry no banners, they beat no drums; but where they are men learn that bustle and push are not the equals of quiet genius and serene mastery.

A great man represents a great ganglion in the nerves of society, or to vary the figure, a strategic point in the campaign of history, and part of his greatness consists in his being there.

Life is an end in itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it.

If you don’t know what you want, you will probably never get it.

Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.