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James Russell Lowell Quotes - Page 8

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Of my merit On that pint you yourself may jedge: All is, I never drink no sperit, Nor I haint never signed no pledge.

Of my merit On that pint you yourself may jedge: All is, I never drink no sperit, Nor I haint never signed no pledge.

James Russell Lowell
May, Merit, Drink
James Russell Lowell (1859). “The Biglow papers”, p.111

To be young is surely the best, if the most precarious, gift of life.

James Russell Lowell
Youth, Young, Gifts Of Life
James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.277

Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves.

James Russell Lowell
Hero, Slave, Easy
James Russell Lowell (1857). “Miscellaneous poems. Memorial verses. Sonnets. I-XXVII. L'Envoi. Vision of Sir Launfal”, p.163

In the scale of the destinies, brawn will never weigh so mach as brain.

James Russell Lowell
Destiny, Brain, Scales

My soul is not a palace of the past.

James Russell Lowell
Past, Soul, Palaces
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.48

The nunneries of silent nooks, the murmured longing of the wood.

James Russell Lowell
Woods, Longing, Silent

I don't believe in principle, but I do in interest.

James Russell Lowell
Believe, Curiosity, Principles

Sentiment is intellectualized emotion; emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy.

James Russell Lowell
Fancy, Crystals, Emotion
James Russell Lowell (1857). “Literary essays; Among my books, My study windows, Fireside travels”, p.252

A sneer is the weapon of the weak. Like other devil's weapons, it is always cunningly ready to our hand, and there is more poison in the handle than in the point.

James Russell Lowell
Hands, Devil, Poison
James Russell Lowell (1846). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.58

It is quite too common a practice, both in readers and the more superficial class of critics, to judge a book by what it is not, a matter much easier to determine than what it is.

James Russell Lowell
Book, Practice, Class
Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, Henry Cabot Lodge (1849). “The North American Review”, p.212

Old events have modern meanings; only that survives of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.

James Russell Lowell
Heart, Past, History
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.402

Let us be thankful that there is no court by which we can be excluded from our share in the inheritance of the great poets of all ages and countries, to which our simple humanity entitles us.

James Russell Lowell
Country, Simple, Being Thankful
Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, Henry Cabot Lodge (1849). “The North American Review”, p.207

Analysis is carried into everything. Even Deity is subjected to chemical tests.

James Russell Lowell
Analysis, Tests, Deities

Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.

James Russell Lowell
Religious, Believe, Eggs
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books: Six Essays”, p.227

Here come the hum the golden bees Underneath full blossomed trees, At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned.

James Russell Lowell
Flower, Glowing, Tree
James Russell Lowell (1873). “The Poetical Works of James R. Lowell: Complete in Two Volumes”, p.7

A poet must need be before his own age, to be even with posterity

James Russell Lowell
Age, Needs, Poet
James Russell Lowell (1844). “Poems”

The secret of force in writing lies not so much in the pedigree of nouns and adjectives and verbs, as in having something that you believe in to say, and making the parts of speech vividly conscious of it.

James Russell Lowell
Lying, Believe, Writing
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among my Books, etc”, p.162

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it; We are happy now because God wills it.

James Russell Lowell
Happiness, Heart, Gods Will
James Russell Lowell (2012). “The Vision of Sir Launfal And Other Poems by James Russell Lowell, With a Biographical Sketch and Notes, a Portrait and Other Illustrations”, p.33, tredition

A great part of human suffering has its root in the nature of man, and not in that of his institutions.

James Russell Lowell
Men, Roots, Suffering
James Russell Lowell (1897). “Literary and political addresses”

Pride of origin, whether high or low, springs from the same principle in human nature; one is but the positive, the other the negative, pole of a single weakness.

James Russell Lowell
Spring, Pride, Weakness
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1818, Delphi Classics

It is curious for one who studies the action and reaction of national literature on each other, to see the humor of Swift and Sterne and Fielding, after filtering through Richter, reappear in Carlyle with a tinge of Germanism that makes it novel, alien, or even displeasing, as the case may be, to the English mind.

James Russell Lowell
Style, Mind, Literature
James Russell Lowell (1857). “Literary essays; Among my books, My study windows, Fireside travels”, p.88

Where Church and State are habitually associated, it is natural that minds, even of a high order, should unconsciously come to regard religion as only a subtler mode of police.

James Russell Lowell
Order, Police, Mind
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1118, Delphi Classics

Console yourself, dear man and brother; whatever you may be sure of, be sure at least of this, that you are dreadfully like other people. Human nature has a much greater genius for sameness than for originality.

James Russell Lowell
Brother, Men, People
James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.49

The purely Great Whose soul no siren passion could unsphere, Thou nameless, now a power and mixed with fate.

James Russell Lowell
Passion, Fate, Soul
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.794, Delphi Classics

Fortune is the rod of the weak, and the staff of the brave.

James Russell Lowell
Bravery, Literature, Weak

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