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James Russell Lowell Quotes - Page 10

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It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was practically settled.

It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was practically settled.

James Russell Lowell
Education, Destiny, America
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1223, Delphi Classics

Things always seem fairer when we look back at them, and it is out of that inaccessible tower of the past that Longing leans and beckons.

James Russell Lowell
Past, Towers, Looks
James Russell Lowell (1864). “Fireside Travels”, p.294

And the poorest twig on the elm-tree was ridged inch deep with pearl.

James Russell Lowell
Snow, Tree, Pearls
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.379

To me it seems not unreasonable to find a re-enforcement of optimism, a renewal of courage and hope, in the modern theory that man has mounted to what he is from the lowest step of potentiality, through toilsome grades of ever-expanding existence, even thought it have been by a spiral stairway, mainly dark or dusty, with loop-holes at long intervals only, and these granting but a narrow and one-sided view.

James Russell Lowell
Dark, Men, Views

Fools, when their roof-tree falls, think it doomsday.

James Russell Lowell
Fall, Thinking, Tree
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.401

A profound common sense is the best genius for statesmanship.

James Russell Lowell
Common Sense, Profound, Genius
James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.132

O thou, whose days are yet all spring, Faith, blighted once, is past retrieving; Experience is a dumb, dead thing; The victory's in believing.

James Russell Lowell
Spring, Believe, Past
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.98

Not suffering, but faint heart, is worst of woes.

James Russell Lowell
Heart, Suffering, Woe
James Russell Lowell (1869). “Under the Willows, and Other Poems”, p.236

Earth's biggest country 's gut her soul, An' risen up earth's greatest nation.

James Russell Lowell
Country, Soul, Earth
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.583, Delphi Classics

Who's not sat tense before his own heart's curtain.

James Russell Lowell
Heart, Anxiety, Tense

Life seems a jest of Fate's contriving.

James Russell Lowell
Life, Fate, Conniving
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.430

An angel stood and met my gaze, Through the low doorway of my tent; The tent is struck, the vision stays; I only know she came and went.

James Russell Lowell
Angel, Vision, Doorways
James Russell Lowell (1857). “Miscellaneous poems. Memorial verses. Sonnets. I-XXVII. L'Envoi. Vision of Sir Launfal”, p.225

Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past.

James Russell Lowell
Past, Memorial, Safe
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.770, Delphi Classics

The rich man's sons inherits cares; The bank may break, the factory burn, A breath may burst his bubble shares, And soft, white hands could hardly earn A living that would serve his turn.

James Russell Lowell
Son, Men, White
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.17

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
Children, Lying, Light
"The Changeling". Poem by James Russell Lowell, 1879.

There is no self-delusion more fatal than that which makes the conscience dreamy with the anodyne of lofty sentiments, while the life is groveling and sensual

James Russell Lowell
Self, Sensual, Life Is
James Russell Lowell (1872). “Among my Books: Contents: Dryden. Witchcraft. Shakespeare once more. New England two centuries ago. Lessing. Rousseau and the Sentimentalists”, p.363

The wisest man could ask no more of fate Than to be simple, modest, manly, true, Safe from the many, honored by the few; Nothing to court in Church, or World, or State, But inwardly in secret to be great.

James Russell Lowell
Fate, Simple, Men

To make the common marvelous is the test of genius.

James Russell Lowell
Genius, Tests, Common

The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere.

James Russell Lowell
War, House, Mind
1869 'On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners', in the Atlantic Monthly, Jan.

The first lesson of life is to burn our own smoke; that is, not to inflict on outsiders our personal sorrows and petty morbidness, not to keep thinking of ourselves as exceptional cases.

James Russell Lowell
Life Lesson, Thinking, Sorrow

I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.

James Russell Lowell
Knives, Mind, Democracy
James Russell Lowell (1904). “Letters, ed. by C. E. Norton”

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
Faith, Color, Weather
Carl Schurz, James Russell Lowell, Ralph Waldo Emerson (2005). “Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Speech A”, Cosimo, Inc.

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
Discipline, Example, Literature

The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down, and still fluttered down the snow.

James Russell Lowell
Winter, Swans, Snow
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.379

Old gold has a civilizing virtue which new gold must grow old to be capable of secreting.

James Russell Lowell
Gold, Wealth, Virtue
James Russell Lowell (1910). “Essays, English and American”

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