Tao Te Ching
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
1841 – 1935 CE
Game-changing Supreme Court Justice
One of America’s most respected and influential judges of all time, Holmes still holds the record for the oldest Supreme Court Justice. His family was close friends with Henry James Sr. and Ralph Waldo Emerson; he became close friends with William James and Henry James Jr. His often-cited, penetrating comments supported civil liberty, freedom of speech, and progressive, democratic ideals. His legal opinions formed the foundation for Roosevelt’s New Deal. His book, The Common Law (still in print after more than 140 years), remains a source for heated debates. Opposing attitudes based on opinions about any kind of absolute truth, it describes law as an evolving process based on the changing attitudes and insights of society.
Appointed to the Supreme Court by President Theodore Roosevelt, he became one of the greatest judges but disappointed and alienated Roosevelt when he ruled against an anti-trust case particularly close to him. He approved trade unions and their ability to organize and strike, supported eugenics laws, and earned a reputation as 'The Great Dissenter.'
Lineages
American (USA) Humanism
Eras
Western
Post-Romantic Age (1850 – 2018 CE)Gilded Age (1860 – 1900 CE)
Great Depression (1929 – 1941 CE)
Victorian (1837 – 1901 CE)
Roaring Twenties (1920 – 1929 CE)
American Civil War (1861 – 1865 CE)
Chinese
Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912 CE)Unlisted Sources
Collected Legal Papers
Letter 1930
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
Quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (11 quotes)
“Judge not a people by the ferocity of its men, but by the steadfastness of its women.”
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“The 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.”
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“Free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.”
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“The only fire-brand of my youth that burns to me as brightly as ever is Emerson.”
from Letter 1930
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“If we think of our existence not as that of a little god outside, but as that of a ganglion within, we have the infinite behind us.”
from Collected Legal Papers
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“Don't let your heart grow cold, and you may carry cheerfulness and love with you into the teens of your second century.”
from The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
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“What is the use of fighting against the season, or the tides, or the movements of the planetary bodies, or this ebb in the wave of life that flows through us?”
from The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
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“Solon learned something new, every day in his old age.”
from The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
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“Society is a strong solution of books. It draws the virtue out of what is best worth reading, as hot water draws the strength of tea-leaves... the disembalming and unbandaging of all literary mummies.”
from The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
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“I don't know anything sweeter than this leaking in of Nature through all the cracks in the walls and floors of cities.”
from The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
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“The mountains have a greand, stupid, lovable tranquility; the sea has a fascinating, treacherous intelligence... you can domesticate mountains, but the sea is ferae naturae.”
from The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
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