197 Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Under bad manners, as under graver faults, lies very commonly an overestimate of our special individuality, as distinguished from our generic humanity.

In my opinion, economists and sociologists are the people to whom we ought to turn more than we do for instruction in the grounds and foundations of all rational decisions.

Blood is a destiny. One’s genius descends in the stream from long lines of ancestry.

The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.

Most of us retain enough of the theological attitude to think that we are little gods.

Life, not the parson, teaches conduct.

The worst of a modern stylish mansion is that it has no place for ghosts.

I have always sought to guide the future-but it is very lonely sometimes trying to play God.

Pretty much all law consists in forbidding men to do something that they want to do.