“The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience… 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.”
The Common Law (1881), p. 1.
1880s
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Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.107
United States Supreme Court justice 1841–1935Related quotes
George Boole (1815–1864) English mathematician, philosopher and logician
Source: 1850s, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854), p. 50
George Frederick James Temple (1901–1992) British mathematician
100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)
“During this century mathematics has been transformed…”
George Frederick James Temple (1901–1992) British mathematician
100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)
W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English librettist of the Gilbert & Sullivan duo
The Lord Chancellor's Song (from Iolanthe).
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Variant: The Law is the true embodiment
Of everything that's excellent.
It has no kind of fault or flaw,
And I, my Lords, embody the Law.
Thomas Young (scientist) (1773–1829) English polymath
Preface (March 30, 1807)
A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)
“It is a strong presumption that that which never has been done cannot by law be done at all.”
William Henry Ashurst (judge) (1725–1807) English judge
Russell v. The Mayor of Devon (1788), 1 T. R. 673.
Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
On gender equality: United States v. Virginia (1996) (dissenting).
1990s
