James Russell Lowell Quotes - Page 11

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• We cannot but think there is something like a fallacy in Mr. Buckle's theory that the advance of mankind is necessarily in the direction of science, and not in that of morals.

  James Russell Lowell

  Science, Thinking, Moral

  James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books: First [-second] series”, p.116

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• Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction.

  James Russell Lowell

  Life, Destiny, Men

  James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books”, p.234

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• A sneer is the weapon of the weak.

  James Russell Lowell

  Criticism, Weapons, Weak

  James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.56

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• Better to me the poor mans crust,
  Better the blessing of the poor,
  Though I turn me empty from his door;
  That is no true alms which the hand can hold;
  He gives nothing but worthless gold
  Who gives from a sense of duty;
  But he who gives a slender mite,
  And gives to that which is out of sight,
  That thread of the all-sustaining Beauty
  Which runs through all and doth all unite, -
  The hand cannot clasp the whole of his alms,
  The heart outstretches its eager palms,
  For a god goes with it and makes it store
  To the soul that was starving in darkness before.

  James Russell Lowell

  Running, Heart, Blessing

  James Russell Lowell, “The Vision Of Sir Launfal”

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• May is a pious fraud of the almanac.

  James Russell Lowell

  Spring, May, Fraud

  'Under the Willows' (1869) l. 21

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• 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

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• All free governments, whatever their name, are in reality governments by public opinion ; and it is on the quality of this public opinion that their prosperity depends. It is, therefore, their first duty to purify the element from which they draw the breath of life.

  James Russell Lowell

  Reality, Government, Names

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

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• Large charity doth never soil, but only whitens soft white hands.

  James Russell Lowell

  Hands, White, Charity

  James Russell Lowell (1873). “The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell”, p.17

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• All thoughtful men are solitary and original in themselves.

  James Russell Lowell

  Thoughtful, Men, Originality

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• 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

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• God is not dumb, that he should speak no more;
  If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness
  And find'st not Sinai, 'tis thy soul is poor.

  James Russell Lowell

  Dumb, Soul, Religion

  James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.263, Delphi Classics

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• 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”

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

  James Russell Lowell

  Reading, Sunrise, Grass

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• 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

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• 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”

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• 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

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• All that hath been majestical
  In life or death, since time began,
  Is native in the simple heart of all,
  The angel heat of man.

  James Russell Lowell

  Heart, Character, Angel

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• Comparative criticism teaches us that moral and aesthetic defects are more nearly related than is commonly supposed.

  James Russell Lowell

  Criticism, Moral, Teach

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.97

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• The very gnarliest and hardest of hearts has some musical strings in it; but they are tuned differently in every one of us.

  James Russell Lowell

  Heart, Musical, Strings

  James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.48

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• While tenderness of feeling and susceptibility to generous emotions are accidents of temperament, goodness is an achievement of the will and a quality of the life.

  James Russell Lowell

  Good Life, Achievement, Feelings

  James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books”, p.358

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• God's livery is a very plain one; but its wearers have good reason to be content. If it have not so much gold-lace about it as Satan's, it keeps out foul weather better, and is besides a great deal cheaper.

  James Russell Lowell

  Weather, Gold, Lace

  James Russell Lowell (1844). “Poems”

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• Be He nowhere else, God is in all that liberates and lifts, in all that humbles, sweetens, and consoles.

  James Russell Lowell

  God, Lifts, Console

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.446

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• Who is it needs such flawless shafts as fate? What archer of his arrows is so choice, or hits the white so surely?

  James Russell Lowell

  Archer, Fate, White

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.400

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• He mastered whatever was not worth the knowing.

  James Russell Lowell

  Education, Work, Knowledge

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.132

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• 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”

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