James Russell Lowell Quotes

Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.

Earth’s noblest thing, — a woman perfected.

Truth forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future.

Both of them mean that Labor has no rights which Capital is bound to respect,—that there is no higher law than human interest and cupidity.

One secret of Mr. Lincoln’s remarkable success in captivating the popular mind is undoubtedly an unconsciousness of self which enables him, though under the necessity of constantly using the capital I, to do it without any suggestion of egotism.

Our papers don't purtend to print on'y wut Guv'ment choose,
An' thet insures us all to git the very best o' noose.

Our slender life runs rippling by, and glides
Into the silent hollow of the past;
What is there that abides
To make the next age better for the last?

Along A River-Side, I Know Not Where,
I walked one night in mystery of dream;
A chill creeps curdling yet beneath my hair,
To think what chanced me by the pallid gleam
Of a moon-wraith that waned through haunted air.

'T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look On sech a blessed cretur.

Though old the thought and oft exprest,
'Tis his at last who says it best.

A reading-machine, always wound up and going,
He mastered whatever was not worth the knowing.

There should be some to watch and keep alive all beautiful beliefs...

There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer.

Simple as it seems, it was a great discovery that the key of knowledge could turn both ways, that it could open, as well as lock, the door of power to the many.

In life's small things be resolute and great
To keep thy muscle trained: know'st thou when Fate
Thy measure takes, or when she'll say to thee,
"I find thee worthy; do this deed for me"?