The desires of your soul are the prophets of your destiny. ——Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. "The Holmes Reader"

When you can't make a decision, you can flip a coin and decide. What it means is that when you want to throw it a second time, you already have the answer in your mind. Many confused people actually already have the result in their hearts, but they are just unwilling to face it.

Introduction to the content of "The Holmes Reader (Selected Essays and Public Speeches)": This small book in front of the reader is an alternative interpretation of Holmes' thought. What is the purpose of classifying and organizing the works of a "scholar-type judge"? Instead, it presents a thinker's academic concerns, career orientation and life attitude through 16 essays and speeches of varying lengths.

Extended information

The real value of "The Holmes Reader (Selected Essays and Public Speeches)" does not lie in increasing our knowledge, but in enlightening our thinking. Any conversation with a great thinker is exciting. As the "greatest dissenter" in the history of American law, Holmes is still standing beside us, waiting for us to open this "Holmes Reader" (Essays and "Selected Public Speeches"), feel his poetic words and the sharp thoughts behind these words.

Perhaps it is difficult for today’s lawyers to write in such a poetic way of expression because our legal knowledge has become too technical. But deep down, can they still continue Holmes's radiant yet rational passion? If the life of law lies in experience.

Then the life of a legal person may be here, as Holmes told every boy who wants to succeed in the legal field, "The desire of his soul is the prophet of his destiny."

Baidu Encyclopedia-Holmes Reader