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5 quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. · clear filters
Great cases, like hard cases, make bad law. For great cases are called great, not by reason of their real importance in shaping the law of the future, but because of some accident of immediate overwhelming interest which appeals to the feelings and distorts the judgment.
This case is decided upon an economic theory which a large part of the country does not entertain.
a Constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory, whether of paternalism and the organic relation of the citizen to the state or of laissez faire
General propositions do not decide concrete cases.
The only difference between the expression of an opinion and an incitement in the narrower sense is the speaker's enthusiasm for the result.