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James Russell Lowell Quotes - Page 17

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The sentimentalist does not think of what he does so much as of what the world will think of what he does.

The sentimentalist does not think of what he does so much as of what the world will think of what he does.

James Russell Lowell
Thinking, Doe, World
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among my Books, etc”, p.377

If the devil take a less hateful shape to us than to our fathers, he is as busy with us as with them.

James Russell Lowell
Father, Devil, Shapes
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among my Books, etc”, p.229

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.

James Russell Lowell
Truth, Men, Bravery
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.66

There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one, Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on.

James Russell Lowell
Gold, Nails, Firsts
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.317, Delphi Classics

Humbleness is always grace; always dignity

James Russell Lowell
Humility, Grace, Dignity
James Russell Lowell (1844). “Poems”

The future works out great men's destinies; The present is enough for common souls, Who, never looking forward, are indeed Mere clay wherein the footprints of their age Are petrified forever.

James Russell Lowell
Destiny, Men, Work Out
James Russell Lowell (1844). “Poems”, p.178

The thing we long for, that we are For one transcendent moment.

James Russell Lowell
Long, Desire, Moments
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.92

Democracy is nothing more than an experiment in government, more likely to succeed in a new soil, but likely to be tried in all soils, which must stand or fall on its own merits as others have done before it. For there is no trick of perpetual motion in politics any more than in mechanics.

James Russell Lowell
Fall, Government, Democracy
William Makepeace Thackeray, John Henry Newman, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, Walter Bagehot (1910). “Essays, English and American: With Introductions and Notes”

He who esteems the Virginia reel A bait to draw saints from their spiritual weal, And regards the quadrille as a far greater knavery Than crushing His African children with slavery, Since all who take part in a waltz or cotillon Are mounted for hell on the devil's own pillion, Who, as every true orthodox Christian well knows, Approaches the heart through the door of the toes.

James Russell Lowell
Crush, Christian, Spiritual
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.316, Delphi Classics

My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 't is to crow: Don't never prophesy - onless ye know.

James Russell Lowell
Crow, Prophecy, Grans
James Russell Lowell (1890). “The Works of James Russell Lowell: Poetical works”

It is the rooted instinct in men to admire what is better and more beautiful than themselves.

James Russell Lowell
Beautiful, Men, Intuition
William Makepeace Thackeray, John Henry Newman, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, Walter Bagehot (1910). “Essays, English and American: With Introductions and Notes”

It is singular how impatient men are with overpraise of others, how patient of overpraise of themselves; and yet the one does them no injury, while the other may be their ruin.

James Russell Lowell
Men, Doe, May
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.595, Delphi Classics

All thoughts that mold the age begin deep down within the primitive soul.

James Russell Lowell
Ideas, Soul, Age
James Russell Lowell, “An Incident In A Railroad Car”

Have you ever rightly considered what the mere ability to read means? That it is the key which admits us to the whole world of thought and fancy and imagination? to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and the wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moment? That it enables us to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all time? More than that, it annihilates time and space for us.

James Russell Lowell
Reading, Mean, Eye
James Russell Lowell (1887). “Democracy and other Addresses”

Reading Chaucer is like brushing through the dewy grass at sunrise.

James Russell Lowell
Reading, Sunrise, Grass

He gives only the worthless gold who gives from a sense of duty.

James Russell Lowell
Giving, Gold, Duty
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.286, Delphi Classics

Fanaticism, or, to call it by its milder name, enthusiasm, is only powerful and active so long as it is aggressive. Establish it firmly in power, and it becomes conservatism, whether it will or no.

James Russell Lowell
Powerful, Names, Long
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books”, p.232

There are two kinds of genius. The first and highest may be said to speak out of the eternal to the present, and must compel its age to understand it; the second understands its age, and tells it what it wishes to be told.

James Russell Lowell
Two, Speaks Out, Wish
Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, Henry Cabot Lodge (1871). “The North American Review”, p.196

Faith in God, faith in man, faith in work: this is the short formula in which we may sum up the teachings of the founders of New England,--a creed ample enough for this life and the next.

James Russell Lowell
Faith, Teaching, Men
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among my Books, etc”, p.229

In all literary history there is no such figure as Dante, no such homogeneousness of life and works, such loyalty to ideas, such sublime irrecognition of the unessential.

James Russell Lowell
Loyalty, Ideas, Sublime
James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton (1904). “The Complete Writings of James Russell Lowell: Among my books”

The true historical genius, to our thinking, is that which can see the nobler meaning of events that are near him, as the true poet is he who detects the divine in the casual; and we somewhat suspect the depth of his insight into the past who cannot recognize the godlike of to-day under that disguise in which it always visits us.

James Russell Lowell
Thinking, Past, Historical
James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.109

There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business.

James Russell Lowell
Business, Advice, Risk
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1220, Delphi Classics

Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm, eloquence produces conviction for the moment; but it is only by truth to Nature and the everlasting institutions of mankind that those abiding influences are won that enlarge from generation to generation.

James Russell Lowell
Enthusiasm, Abiding, Generations

The opening of the first grammar school was the opening of the first trench against monopoly in Church and State.

James Russell Lowell
Education, School, Church
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among my Books, etc”, p.242

Fastidiousness is only another word for egotism; and all men who know not where to look for truth save in the narrow well of self will find their own image at the bottom, and mistake it for what they are seeking.

James Russell Lowell
Mistake, Men, Self
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books: Six Essays”, p.331

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