James Russell Lowell Quotes - Page 18

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• If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I should answer that there is one book better than a cheap book, - and that is a book honestly come by.

  James Russell Lowell

  Book, Answers, Should

  Before the U. S. Senate Committee on Patents, January 29, 1886.

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• 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

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• 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

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• Ez fer war, I call it murder,- There you hev it plain an' flat; I don't want to go no furder Than my Testyment fer that. . . . . . An' you 've gut to git up airly Ef you want to take in God.

  James Russell Lowell

  War, Want, Murder

  'The Biglow Papers' (First Series, 1848) no. 1 'A Letter'

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• We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.

  James Russell Lowell

  War, Kind, Christ

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.191

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Ye come and go incessant; we remain Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past; Be reverent, ye who flit and are forgot, Of faith so nobly realized as this.

  James Russell Lowell

  Past, Safe, Incessant

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

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• 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

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• To have greatly dreamed precludes low ends.

  James Russell Lowell

  Ends, Lows

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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Men have their intellectual ancestry, and the likeness of some one of them is forever unexpectedly flashing out in the features of a descendant, it may be after a gap of several centuries. In the parliament of the present every man represents a constituency of the past.

  James Russell Lowell

  Past, Men, Forever

  "The poetical works of John Keats. With a memoir, by James Russell Lowell" by John Keats, James Russell Lowell, New York: J. Miller, 1871.

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• 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

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• 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”

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• We look at death through the cheap-glazed windows of the flesh, and believe him the monster which the flawed and cracked glass represents him.

  James Russell Lowell

  Death, Believe, Glasses

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• The New World's sons from England's breast we drew
  Such milk as bids remember whence we came,
  Proud of her past wherefrom our future grew,
  This window we inscribe with Raleigh's fame.

  James Russell Lowell

  Son, Past, World

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• To fail at all is to fail utterly.

  James Russell Lowell

  Failure, Failing

  James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among my Books, etc”, p.45

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• It is not without reason that fame is awarded only after death. The cloud-dust of notoriety which follows and envelops the men who drive with the wind bewilders contemporary judgment.

  James Russell Lowell

  Men, Clouds, Dust

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• Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut to du
  Is jes' to show you're up to fightin', tu.

  James Russell Lowell

  Peace, Want, Shows

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.271

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• But better far it is to speak
  One simple word, which now and then
  Shall waken their free nature in the weak
  And friendless sons of men.

  James Russell Lowell

  Sympathy, Son, Simple

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.40

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• I would hardly change the sorrowful words of the poets for their glad ones. Tears dampen the strings of the lyre, but they grow the tensor for it, and ring even the clearer and more ravishingly.

  James Russell Lowell

  Tears, Poet, Strings

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• Men's thoughts and opinions are in a great degree vassals of him who invents a new phrase or re-applies an old epithet. The thought or feeling a thousand times repeated becomes his at last who utters it best.

  James Russell Lowell

  Men, Feelings, Degrees

  James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books: First [-second] series”, p.326

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