James Russell Lowell Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge,Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge.
James Russell Lowell
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The birch, most shy and lady-like of trees,Her poverty, as best she may, retrieves,And hints at her foregone gentilitiesWith some saved relics of her wealth of leaves.
James Russell Lowell
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These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred,Each softly lucent as a rounded moon;The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
James Russell Lowell
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There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.
James Russell Lowell
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And I honor the man who is willing to sinkHalf his present repute for the freedom to think,And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak, Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store, Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower.
James Russell Lowell
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The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
James Russell Lowell
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But life is sweet, though all that makes it sweetLessen like sound of friends’ departing feet;And Death is beautiful as feet of friendComing with welcome at our journey’s end.For me Fate gave, whate’er she else denied,A nature sloping to the southern side;I thank her for it, though when clouds ariseSuch natures double-darken gloomy skies.
James Russell Lowell
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New times demand new measures and new men;The world advances, and in time outgrowsThe laws which in our father's times were best;And doubtless, after us, some purer schemeWill be shaped out by wiser men than we,Made wiser by the steady growth of truth.
James Russell Lowell
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For a cap and bells our lives we pay,Bubbles we earn with a whole soul's tasking:'Tis heaven alone that is given away,'Tis only God may be had for the asking.
James Russell Lowell
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Blessed are they who have nothing to say and who cannot be persuaded to say it.
James Russell Lowell
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Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold- bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences of belief.
James Russell Lowell
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An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.
James Russell Lowell
