James Russell Lowell Quotes


"As life runs on, the road grows strange with faces new - and near the end. The milestones into headstones change, Neath every one a friend."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Life, Change, Friend, Faces, Road)

"Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Imagination, Society, Character, Solitude)

"Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of character."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Character, Being, Sincerity)

"Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Light, Merit, Reputation, World)

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Creativity)

"Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Bees, Books, Mind)

"Fate loves the fearless."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Fate)

"Every person born into this world their work is born with them."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Work, World)

"Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Action, Man, World)

"Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Quality, Endurance, Passion, Patience)

"Each day the world is born anew for him who takes it rightly."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Day, World)

"Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Government, Democracy, Man, Right)

"Fortune is the rod of the weak, and the staff of the brave."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Fortune)

"Death is delightful. Death is dawn, The waking from a weary night Of fevers unto truth and light."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Death, Truth, Dawn, Light, Night, Waking)

"Freedom is the only law which genius knows."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Genius, Freedom, Law)

"Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Politics, Compromise, Party, Poor, Statesmanship)

"Children are God's Apostles, sent forth, day by day, to preach of love, and hope, and peace."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Peace, Love, God, Hope, Children, Day)

"Blessed are they who have nothing to say and who cannot be persuaded to say it."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Nothing)

"And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Day, June)

"An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: People, Reason)

"All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Action, World)

"A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, Which is seen through at once, if love give a man eyes."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Love, Disguise, Eyes, Man)

"A great man is made up of qualities that meet or make great occasions."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Man)

"Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Democracy, Man, Right)

"It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of man is tested."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Man, Mind)

"Once to every person and nation come the moment to decide. In the conflict of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Truth, Conflict, Evil, Falsehood, Nation)

"On one issue at least, men and women agree; they both distrust women."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Men, Women, Distrust)

"Not failure, but low aim, is crime."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Failure, Crime)

"No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Man)

"Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle."
- James Russell Lowell
"Light is the symbol of truth."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Truth, Light, Symbol)

"Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come."
- James Russell Lowell
"Folks never understand the folks they hate."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Hate)

"It is the privilege of genius that life never grows common place, as it does for the rest of us."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Life, Genius, Privilege, Rest)

"One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Experience, Wilderness, Worth)

"Incredulity robs us of many pleasures, and gives us nothing in return."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Incredulity, Nothing)

"In the ocean of baseness, the deeper we get, the easier the sinking."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Ocean)

"In creating, the only hard thing is to begin: a grass blade's no easier to make than an oak."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Oak)

"If youth be a defect, it is one that we outgrow only too soon."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Youth)

"I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Democracy, Manners, Mind, Weapons)

"He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson in statecraft."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Progress, Authority, Security)

"Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime. Not failure, but low aim is crime."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Time, Failure, Crime)

"Good luck is the willing handmaid of a upright and energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Character, Duty, Luck)

"Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Grief, Joy)

"Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold- bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Men, Belief)

"To educate the intelligence is to expand the horizon of its wants and desires."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Intelligence)

"There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Cruelty, Nothing, Sea, Wonder)

"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Truth, Wrong)

"There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Argument, Wind)

"The surest plan to make a man is, think him so."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Man)

"The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Experience, Faith, Conviction)

"The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Thoughts, Mind)

"The heart forgets its sorrow and ache."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Heart, Sorrow)

"The greatest homage we can pay to truth, is to use it."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Truth)

"There are two kinds of weakness, that which breaks and that which bends."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Weakness)

"Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Truth)

"Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Change, People)

"What a sense of security in an old book which time has criticized for us."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Time, Old, Security, Sense)

"What men prize most is a privilege, even if it be that of chief mourner at a funeral."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Men, Privilege)

"Where one person shapes their life by precept and example, there are a thousand who have shaped it by impulse and circumstances."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Life, Circumstances, Example)

"Who's not sat tense before his own heart's curtain."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Heart)

"The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Change, Opinions)

"The eye is the notebook of the poet."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Eye)

"Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day, which must be done, whether you like it or not."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: God, Day)

"True scholarship consists in knowing not what things exist, but what they mean; it is not memory but judgment."
- James Russell Lowell
(Related: Judgment, Memory)