奥利佛·文德尔·荷默斯以“大反对家”而著称。1902年，瑟奥多·罗斯福总统任命他美国最高法院陪审法官。他任此职时将近91岁。

In this symposium, my better is it to only sit in silence. To express one's feelings as the end draws near is too intimate a task. That I would mention only one thought that comes to me as a listener-in: the riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal, there is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill, there is time to hear the kind voice of friends, and to say to oneself, the work is done. But just as one says, that the answer comes the race is over but the work never is done while the power to work remains. The canter that brings you to a standstill need not be only coming to rest, it cannot be while you still live, but to live is to function, that is all there is in living. So I end with a land from a Latin voice who had heard the message more than fifteen hundred years ago: death, death, clutch my ear, and says, live, I am coming.