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James Russell Lowell Quotes - Page 18

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The right to be a cussed fool Is safe from all devices human, It's common (ez a gin'I rule) To every critter born of woman.

The right to be a cussed fool Is safe from all devices human, It's common (ez a gin'I rule) To every critter born of woman.

James Russell Lowell
Fool, Safe, Common

Those who know the truth are not equal to those who love it Confucius All truth is safe and nothing else is safe, but he who keeps back truth, or withholds it from men, from motives of expediency, is either a coward or a criminal.

James Russell Lowell
Love, Truth, Men

O visionary world, condition strange, Where naught abiding is but only change.

James Russell Lowell
Change, Abiding, Visionaries
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.757, Delphi Classics

Communism means barbarism.

James Russell Lowell
Mean, Communism, Barbarism
James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton (1904). “Literary and political addresses”

Wealth may be an excellent thing, for it means power, and it means leisure, it means liberty.

James Russell Lowell
Mean, Liberty, May
James Russell Lowell (1900). “The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry ...”

Tiny Salmoneus of the air His mimic bolts the firefly threw.

James Russell Lowell
Firefly, Air, Tiny
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.923, Delphi Classics

This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur.

James Russell Lowell
Waiting, Glory
James Russell Lowell (1859). “The Biglow papers”, p.47

Nature, they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote.

James Russell Lowell
Nature, Men, Worn
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.431

I don't believe in princerple, But oh I du in interest.

James Russell Lowell
Believe, Belief, Interest
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.461, Delphi Classics

The fireflies o'er the meadow In pulses come and go.

James Russell Lowell
Firefly, Pulse, Meadows
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.16

The time is ripe, and rotten-ripe, for change.

James Russell Lowell
Society, Rotten, Ripe
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.48

The English Puritans pulled down church and state to rebuild Zion on the ruins, and all the while it was not Zion, but America, they were building.

James Russell Lowell
Zion, America, Church
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1222, Delphi Classics

How little inventiveness there is in man, Grave copier of copies.

James Russell Lowell
Men, Littles, Invention
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.445

Borrowed garments never keep one warm.

James Russell Lowell
Plagiarism, Garments, Borrowed
James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.69

All thoughtful men are solitary and original in themselves.

James Russell Lowell
Thoughtful, Men, Originality

Moral supremacy is the only one that leaves monuments, and not ruins, behind it.

James Russell Lowell
Ruins, Morality, Supremacy
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books: First [-second] series”, p.3

Metaphor is no argument, though it be sometimes the gunpowder to drive one home, and imbed it in the memory.

James Russell Lowell
Memories, Home, Gunpowder
James Russell Lowell (1910). “Essays, English and American”

God does not weigh criminality in our scales. We have one absolute, with the seal of authority upon it; and with us an ounce is an ounce, and a pound a pound. God's measure is the heart of the offender,--a balance which varies with every one of us, a balance so delicate that a tear cast in the other side may make the weight of error kick the beam.

James Russell Lowell
Heart, Errors, Balance

The intellect has only one failing, which, to be sure, is a very considerable one. It has no conscience.

James Russell Lowell
Failing, Intellect, Conscience
James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.140

It is only the intellect that can be thoroughly and hideously wicked. It can forget everything in the attainment of its ends. The heart recoils; in its retired some drops of childhood's dew still linger, defying manhood's fiery noon.

James Russell Lowell
Heart, Forget Everything, Childhood
James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.141

The true ideal is not opposed to the real but lies in it; and blessed are the eyes that find it.

James Russell Lowell
Real, Lying, Blessed
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1199, Delphi Classics

To have greatly dreamed precludes low ends.

James Russell Lowell
Ends, Lows
James Russell Lowell (1861). “Poetical Works”, p.123

It is the vain endeavor to make ourselves what we are not that has strewn history with so many broken purposes and lives left in the rough.

James Russell Lowell
Broken, Purpose, Vain
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1503, Delphi Classics

The discontent with the existing order of things pervaded the atmosphere, wherever the conditions were favorable, long before Columbus, seeking the back door of Asia, found himself knocking at the front door of America.

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

Most long lives resemble those threads of gossamer, the nearest approach to nothing unmeaningly prolonged, scarce visible pathways of some worm from his cradle to his grave.

James Russell Lowell
Long, Age, Pathways
James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.74

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