James Russell Lowell Quotes

The question of common sense is always 'What is it good for?'—a question which would abolish the rose and be answered triumphantly by the cabbage.

James Russell Lowell

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Quotes to Explore

• Watching a whole cluster of friends, and my own mother, die over quite a short space of time convinced me that purely materialist 'explanations' for our mysterious human existence simply won't do - on an intellectual level.

  

  A. N. Wilson
  • Time
  • Friends
  • Mother

• If Nixon is not forced to turn over tapes of his conversations with the ring of men who were conversing on their violations of the law, then liberty will soon be dead in this nation.

  

  Earl Warren
  • Men
  • Law
  • Liberty

• I've been working on this feature script for Master Class, a play by Terrence McNally that won a lot of Tonys.

  

  Faye Dunaway
  • Play
  • Working
  • Class

• In the beginning, I didn't dance that much and stuff.

  

  Namie Amuro
  • Beginning
  • Dance
  • Much

• I think men, growing up, you have to go through some form of hardship. You've got to harden the metal.

  

  Ice T
  • Up
  • Men
  • Think

• The world that you and I live in is increasingly challenged. Population growth, pollution, over-consumption, unsustainable patterns, social conflict, climate change, loss of nature... these are not good stories.

  

  Jack Dangermond
  • World
  • Good
  • Live

• I don't want to say anything because I know I am unable to protect you from the harm that I see.

  

  Camille Claudel
  • Protect
  • Harm

• Confidence is key. Sometimes, you need to look like you're confident even when you're not.

  

  Vanessa Hudgens
  • Sometimes
  • Confidence
  • Look

• Any time you have an injury, it's going to be tough.

  

  Calvin Johnson
  • Time
  • You
  • Tough

• The age of Lincoln and Jefferson memorials is over. It will be presidential libraries from now on.

  

  Ada Louise Huxtable
  • Age
  • Will
  • Now

• On one hand I am this weird androgynous tomboy where I'm strangely low maintenance and have a five-minute makeup regimen. On the other I'm obsessed with all things beauty, from skin care to makeup.

  

  Rachel Zoe
  • Beauty
  • Makeup
  • Maintenance

• My roles in the '80s were, like, gender dysphoric. I wasn't pretty, I wasn't this, I wasn't that. And I am kind of butchy, you know. That's just my thing.

  

  Pamela Adlon
  • Roles
  • Gender
  • Dysphoric

• I find Indian music very funky. I mean it's very soulful, with their own kind of blues. But it's the only other school on the planet that develops improvisation to the high degree that you find in jazz music. So we have a lot of common ground.

  

  Mahavishnu John McLaughlin
  • Music
  • School
  • High

• I didn't go into the theater to be a producer, I went into the theater to be a director.

  

  Harold Prince
  • Theater
  • Director
  • Go

• If we don't enforce visa laws, we basically have open borders.

  

  Sam Graves
  • Laws
  • Open
  • Visa

• Our underwear used to just be cotton, but we wanted to see if we could create something out of synthetics.

  

  Tadashi Yanai
  • Create
  • Just
  • Cotton

• To keep your job, you fire others or bench them or trade them. You have to do the thinking for 25 guys, and you can't be too close to any of them.

  

  Earl Weaver
  • Thinking
  • Job
  • Fire

• I think there is a poem out there for everyone, to be an entrance into the poetry and a relationship with it.

  

  Natasha Trethewey
  • Think
  • Relationship
  • Poetry

• 'Do you play games of chance?''Emphatically yes. The process of living is a game of chance. To avoid chance is insanity.'

  

  Larry Niven
  • Game
  • Insanity

• Sometimes societies become too stupid to survive. A nation that takes Barack Obama's current rhetorical flourishes seriously is certainly well advanced along that dismal path.

  

  Mark Steyn
  • Sometimes
  • Path
  • Stupid

• Dice il proverbio, ch'a trovar si vannoGli uomini spesso, e i monti fermi stanno.

  

  Ludovico Ariosto

• I gotta admit, when you've been doing this a long time, going out to the audience and asking for them to help out with crowdfunding, it's a gut check. You never know how that's gonna turn out. Luckily for us, it turned out well.

  

  Burnie Burns
  • Time
  • Long
  • Help

• We accept so many things that come through the media; we get used to them, however vigilant we are. But for any creative art, you have to remain 110% conscious, and in a world that's losing consciousness, that's getting harder.

  

  Keith Jarrett
  • World
  • Art

• The question of common sense is always 'What is it good for?'—a question which would abolish the rose and be answered triumphantly by the cabbage.

  

  James Russell Lowell
  • Good
  • Question
  • Rose