There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Law derives its essence from real-life experiences rather than mere logical constructs.
This quote emphasizes that the foundation of law is built on the practical experiences of life rather than just theoretical reasoning. It suggests that understanding the law requires engagement with the complexities of human experience, which informs and shapes legal concepts more effectively than pure logic alone.
Themes
LawExperiencePhilosophyJusticeLogic
In practice
Example use cases
During a law lecture, the professor quoted Holmes to illustrate the practical nature of legal systems.
More from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
All quotes βOn the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself, as against the saints who deny it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
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?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
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And there you are on the shore, fitful and thoughtful, trying to attach them to an idea β some news of your own life. But the lilies are slippery and wildβthey are devoid of meaning, they are simply doing, from the deepest spurs of their being, what they are impelled to do every summer. And so, dear sorrow, are you.
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[There is] a duty in refusing to cooperate in any undertaking that violates the Constitutional rights of the individual. This holds in particular for all inquisitions that are concerned with the private life and the political affiliations of the citizens.
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Man is a simple being, and however rich, varied, and unfathomable he may be, the cycle of his situations is soon run through.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead