Quotes by James Russell Lowell
Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.
– James Russell Lowell
A sneer is the weapon of the weak.
– James Russell Lowell
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
At the devil’s booth are all things sold. Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold.
– James Russell Lowell
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
— James Russell Lowell
Talent is that which is in a man’s power; genius is that in whose power a man is.
– James Russell Lowell
All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
– James Russell Lowell
Fate loves the fearless.
– James Russell Lowell
The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came.
– James Russell Lowell
Endurance is the crowning quality,
And patience all the passion of great hearts.
– James Russell Lowell
Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretense of it saps the very foundation of character.
– James Russell Lowell
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne–
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
– James Russell Lowell
Things always seem fairer when we look back at them, and it is out of that inaccessible tower of the past that Longing leans and beckons.
— James Russell Lowell
There is no good arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.
— James Russell Lowell
Light is the symbol of truth.
– James Russell Lowell
Analysis is carried into everything. Even Deity is subjected to chemical tests.
-James Russell Lowell
There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business.
– James Russell Lowell
Great truths are portions of the soul of man.
-James Russell Lowell
Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.
– James Russell Lowell
Things always seem fairer when we look back at them, and it is out of that inaccessible tower of the past that Longing leans and beckons.
– JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.
– James Russell Lowell
No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.
– James Russell Lowell
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.
– James Russell Lowell
Nature fits all her children with something to do, he who would write and can’t write, can surely review.
– James Russell Lowell
The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere.
– James Russell Lowell
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
– James Russell Lowell