There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Lawyers spend their professional careers shoveling smoke.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that lawyers often engage in work that is mostly intangible or lacks substance.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.'s quote critiques the legal profession by implying that lawyers often deal with cases and arguments that are not grounded in concrete realities, much like trying to shovel smoke, an impossible task. The metaphor highlights the complexities and sometimes perceived futility of legal work, as it often revolves around abstract concepts rather than tangible outcomes.
Themes
LawLawyersSmokeProfessionCritique
In practice
Example use cases
During a legal ethics seminar, this quote can emphasize the challenges lawyers face.
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.
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If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
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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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