Philosophical Monday

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) was a long-serving member of the US Supreme Court, and also a noted writer and thinker. Here is a short selection from his essay "Natural Law" from 1918:

"If we think of our existence not as that of a little
god outside, but as that of a ganglion within, we
have the infinite behind us. It gives us our only
but our adequate significance. A grain of sand has
the same, but what competent person supposes
that he understands a grain of sand? That is as
much beyond our grasp as man. If our imagination
is strong enough to accept the vision of ourselves as
parts inseverable from the rest, and to extend our
final interest beyond the boundary of our skins, it
justifies the sacrifice even of our lives for ends
outside of ourselves. The motive, to be sure, is the
common wants and ideals that we find in man."