(March 8, 1841–March 6, 1935), was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years. Appointed in 1902 by President Theodore Roosevelt, he was known as the “Great Dissenter.” The son of Oliver Wendell Holmes, the author and physician, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., graduated from Harvard College, served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and later became the editor of the American Law Review. He was a professor at the Harvard Law School before becoming the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.
Known for his remarkable brilliance and humor, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote to William James in 1907:
The great act of faith is when man decides that he is not God.2815
In a letter to John C.H. Wu, dated 1924, Holmes wrote:
Have faith and pursue the unknown end.2816
On March 8, 1931, in reply to a reporter’s question on his ninetieth birthday, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stated:
Young man, the secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered I was not God.2817
Sill, Edward Rowland (April 29, 1841–February 27, 1887), was an American poet and essayist. His works include: Opportunity; and the Fool’s Prayer, in which he stated:
But Lord,
Be merciful to me, a fool!2818