“A second class mind, but a first class temperament.”
A summation of his opinion of Theodore Roosevelt, indicated in various letters, but not recorded in so succinct a form; often incorrectly stated as his opinion of Franklin D. Roosevelt, as indicated in the p. xiv–xv Introduction to The Essential Holmes (1992) http://books.google.com/books?id=HamEkfqdMcEC&pg=PR14&lpg=PR14, edited by Richard A. Posner.
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Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 107
United States Supreme Court justice 1841–1935Related quotes
Source: Ten Little Wizards (1988), Chapter 7 (p. 62)

1960s, The Rising Tide of Racial Consciousnes (1960)

1950s, Remarks at the United Negro College Fund luncheon (1953)

The Hindu article by Arti Das - I am a first-class writer and a second-class director: Sai Paranjpye https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/i-am-a-first-class-writer-and-a-second-class-director-sai-paranjpye/article26606850.ece - 23 March 2019 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210901092539/https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/i-am-a-first-class-writer-and-a-second-class-director-sai-paranjpye/article26606850.ece
Quotes from Sai Paranjpye

1950s, Address at the Philadelphia Convention Hall (1956)
Context: The right of no nation depends upon the date of its birth or the size of its power. As there can be no second class citizens before the law of America, so—we believe—there can be no second-class nations before the law of the world community.

“In America there are two classes of travel — first class, and with children.”
Source: "Kiddie-Kar Travel", Pluck and Luck (1925) http://books.google.com/books?id=ODtLAAAAIAAJ&q=%22In+America+there+are+two+classes+of+travel+first+class+and+with+children%22&pg=PA6#v=onepage; also in D.A.C. News http://www.dacnews.com/, September 1923 http://books.google.com/books?id=uLl9ULzkvikC&q=%22Kiddie+kar+travel%22&pg=PA27#v=onepage
“Vacant minds have their uses, yet it seems a pity to waste first-class bodies on them.”
Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 70

[J]e me propose en m'adressant à différentes fractions de l'humanité, que je divise en trois classes: la première, celle à laquelle vous et moi avons l'honneur d'appartenir, marche sous l'étendard des progrès de l'esprit humain; elle marche sous l'étendard des progrès de l'esprit humain; elle est composée des savants, des artistes et de tous les hommes qui ont des idées libérales. Sur la bannière de la seconde il est écrit: point d'innovation; tous les propriétaires qui n'entrent point dans la première sont attachés à la seconde. La troisième, qui se rallie au mot égalité, renferme le surplus de l'humanité.
Oeuvres choisies: précédées d'un essai sur sa doctrine (1839), p. 15