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James Russell Lowell Quotes - Page 4

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In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing.

In vain we call old notions fudge, And bend our conscience to our dealing; The Ten Commandments will not budge, And stealing will continue stealing.

James Russell Lowell
Fudge, Stealing, Vain
James Russell Lowell (1911). “The poetical works”

The pressure of public opinion is like the pressure of the atmosphere; you can't see it - but all the same, it is sixteen pounds to the square inch.

James Russell Lowell
Squares, Atmosphere, Sixteen

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.

James Russell Lowell
Men, Knowing Who You Are, Blight
'The Present Crisis' (1845)

In the ocean of baseness, the deeper we get, the easier the sinking.

James Russell Lowell
Ocean, Literature, Morality
James Russell Lowell (1845). “Conversations on Some of the Old Poets”, p.61

To educate the intelligence is to expand the horizon of its wants and desires.

James Russell Lowell
Education, Knowledge, Desire

Violet! sweet violet! Thine eyes are full of tears; Are they wet Even yet With the thought of other years?

James Russell Lowell
Sweet, Eye, Years
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.73, Delphi Classics

Slow are the steps of freedom, but her feet turn never backward.

James Russell Lowell
Freedom, Feet, Steps
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.93

Whom the heart of man shuts out, Sometimes the heart of God takes in, And fences them all round about With silence mid the worlds loud din.

James Russell Lowell
Loneliness, Heart, Men
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.16

That love for one, from which there doth not spring Wide love for all, is but a worthless thing.

James Russell Lowell
Love, Spring, Wide
James Russell Lowell (1841). “A year's life”, p.159

The flowers or weeds that spring up tomorrow are in the seeds we sow today. The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.

James Russell Lowell
Weed, Spring, Flower

It is curious how tyrannical the habit of reading is, and what shifts we make to escape thinking. There is no bore we dread being left alone with so much as our own minds.

James Russell Lowell
Reading, Thinking, Mind
James Russell Lowell (1864). “Fireside Travels”, p.124

Who knows whither the clouds have fled? In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, The heart forgets its sorrow and ache.

James Russell Lowell
Heart, Eye, Clouds
James Russell Lowell (1873). “The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell”, p.118

And but two ways are offered to our will, Toil with rare triumph, ease with safe disgrace, The problem still for us and all of human race.

James Russell Lowell
Two, Race, Ease
James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.806, Delphi Classics

They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak.

James Russell Lowell
Fear, Character, Speak
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.53

And what they dare to dream of, date to do.

James Russell Lowell
Dream, Dare To Dream, Daring

For men in earnest have no time to waste In patching fig-leaves for the naked truth.

James Russell Lowell
Truth, Men, Naked
James Russell Lowell (1873). “The Poetical Works of James R. Lowell: Complete in Two Volumes”, p.117

I willingly confess to so great a partiality for trees as tempts me to respect a man in exact proportion to his respect for them.

James Russell Lowell
Men, Tree, Proportion

Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of character.

James Russell Lowell
Character, Foundation, Sap
Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, Henry Cabot Lodge (1871). “The North American Review”, p.189

Evil springs up, and flowers, and bears no seed, And feeds the green earth with its swift decay, Leaving it richer for the growth of truth.

James Russell Lowell
Spring, Flower, Evil
James Russell Lowell (1873). “The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell”, p.34

In creating, the only hard thing is to begin: a grass blade's no easier to make than an oak.

James Russell Lowell
Inspirational, Creativity, Play
James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.138

There is something magnificent in having a country to love.

James Russell Lowell
Country, 4th Of July, Cinco De Mayo
James Russell Lowell (2012). “The Vision of Sir Launfal And Other Poems by James Russell Lowell, Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Julian W. Abernethy, PH.D.”, p.25, tredition

Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is.

James Russell Lowell
Power, Men, Genius
James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among my Books, etc”, p.356

Nature fits all her children with something to do, he who would write and can't write, can surely review.

James Russell Lowell
Children, Writing, Fit
James Russell Lowell (1873). “The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell”, p.162

If God made poets for anything, it was to keep alive the traditions of the pure, the holy, and the beautiful.

James Russell Lowell
Beautiful, Alive, Tradition
James Russell Lowell (1871). “My Study Windows”, p.310

New occasions teach new duties.

James Russell Lowell
Onward And Upward, Duty, Teach
'The Present Crisis' (1845)

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