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Quote#Science & Reason

But as precedents survive like the clavicle in the cat, long after…

Quote byOliver Wendell Holmes · 1841–1935

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "Common Carriers and the Common Law," 13 Am. Law Rev. 608, 630 (1879)..

English (original)

But as precedents survive like the clavicle in the cat, long after the use they once served is at an end, and the reason for them has been forgotten, the result of following them must often be failure and confusion from the merely logical point of view.

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

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