"We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind....Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
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Philosophers from the United StatesJustices of the Supreme Court of the United StatesJudges from the United StatesLawyers from the United StatesUnitarians from the United States
Original Language: English
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Writing for the Court, Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200, 207 (1927) (endorsing Virginia's eugenics program).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oliver_Wendell_Holmes_Jr.
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Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (8 March 1841 – 6 March 1935) was an American jurist and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932; he was often called "The Great Dissenter", and was the son of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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