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James Russell Lowell
193 quotes
“From lower to the higher next, Not to the top, is Nature’s text; And embryo Good, to reach full stature, Absorbs the Evil in its nature.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They came three thousand miles, and died, To keep the Past upon its throne; Unheard, beyond the ocean tide, Their English mother made her moan.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1849 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Graves of Two English Soldiers on Concord Battleground, st. 3 (1849)
“There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1864 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fireside Travels, At Sea (1864)
“It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1864 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Abraham Lincoln (1864)
“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 (1819–1891) first seen 1864 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Abraham Lincoln (1864)
“When I was a beggarly boy, And lived in a cellar damp, I had not a friend nor a toy, But I had Aladdin's lamp.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1868 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Aladdin, st. 1 (1868)
“The capacity of indignation makes an essential part of the outfit of every honest man.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners (1869)
“Blessed are they who have nothing to say, and who cannot be persuaded to say it.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1871 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at the banquet for Grand Duke Alexis, 11 November 1871 at the Revere House Hotel in Boston, p. 102 books.google
“The clear, sweet singer with the crown of snow Not whiter than the thoughts that housed below.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epistle to George William Curtis (1874)
“But life is sweet, though all that makes it sweet Lessen like sound of friends’ departing feet; And Death is beautiful as feet of friend Coming with welcome at our journey’s end. For me Fate gave, whate’er she else denied, A nature sloping to the southern side; I thank her for it, though when clouds arise Such natures double-darken gloomy skies.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1874 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epistle to George William Curtis (1874)
“The child is not mine as the first was, I cannot sing it to rest, I cannot lift it up fatherly And bliss it upon my breast; Yet it lies in my little one's cradle And sits in my little one's chair, And the light of the heaven she's gone to Transfigures its golden hair.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1879 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Changeling, st. 7 (1879)
“The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Garfield (24 September 1881)
“In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: International Copyright (20 November 1885), in The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1896), p. 433. Motto of the American Copyright League
“If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I should answer that there is one book better than a cheap book, — and that is a book honestly come by.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Before the U. S. Senate Committee on Patents (29 January 1886)
“She doeth little kindnesses Which most leave undone, or despise.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Earth’s noblest thing, — a woman perfected.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That love for one, from which there doth not spring Wide love for all, is but a worthless thing.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there breathe on earth a slave, Are ye truly free and brave? If ye do not feel the chain, When it works a brother's pain, Are ye not base slaves indeed, Slaves unworthy to be freed?”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is true Freedom but to break Fetters for our own dear sake, And, with leathern hearts, forget That we owe mankind a debt? No! true freedom is to share All the chains our brothers wear, And, with heart and hand, to be Earnest to make others free!”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His words were simple words enough, And yet he used them so, That what in other mouths was rough In his seemed musical and low.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All thoughts that mould the age begin Deep down within the primitive soul.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It may be glorious to write Thoughts that shall glad the two or three High souls, like those far stars that come in sight Once in a century.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“New times demand new measures and new men; The world advances, and in time outgrows The laws which in our father's times were best; And doubtless, after us, some purer scheme Will be shaped out by wiser men than we, Made wiser by the steady growth of truth.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Glance Behind the Curtain" (1843), p. 176
“No man is born into the world whose work Is not born with him. There is always work, And tools to work withal, for those who will; And blessed are the horny hands of toil.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1843 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Glance Behind the Curtain" (1843), p. 176
“Great truths are portions of the soul of man; Great souls are portions of eternity.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The real doth not clip the poet's wings,— To win the secret of a weed’s plain heart Reveals some clue to spiritual things, And stumbling guess becomes firm-footed art.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two meanings have our lightest fantasies, One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Who speaks the truth stabs Falsehood to the heart.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side; Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand, Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our land? Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet ’tis Truth alone is strong, And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,— Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great, Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn this iron helm of fate, But the soul is still oracular; amid the market's din, List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,— "They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 't is prosperous to be just; Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified, And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes, — they were souls that stood alone, While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone, Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth; They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea, Nor attempt the Future’s portal with the Past’s blood-rusted key.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk that will not let me rest.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before Man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The traitor to humanity is the traitor most accursed; Man is more than Constitutions; better rot beneath the sod, Than to be true to Church and State while we are doubly false to God!”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The nurse of full-grown souls is solitude.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1844 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Columbus" (1844), p. 6
“Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1844 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Columbus" (1844), p. 14
“One day with life and heart Is more than time enough to find a world.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1844 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Columbus" (1844), p. 16
“Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way, Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold, First pledge of blithesome May, Which children pluck, and, full of pride, uphold.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The birch, most shy and lady-like of trees, Her poverty, as best she may, retrieves, And hints at her foregone gentilities With some saved relics of her wealth of leaves.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) first seen 1846 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Indian-Summer Reverie" (1846), stanza 8, p. 167
“The thing we long for, that we are For one transcendent moment.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not only around our infancy Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinais climb and know it not.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us; The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us, We bargain for the graves we lie in; At the Devil's booth are all things sold Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no price set on the lavish summer, And June may be had by the poorest comer.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking: 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking.”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source