Quotes By James Russell Lowell

The surest plan to make a man is, think him so.

Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

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

Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

Every person born into this world their work is born with them.

The eye is the notebook of the poet.

Freedom is the only law which genius knows.

True scholarship consists in knowing not what things exist, but what they mean; it is not memory but judgment.

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

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found.

Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.

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

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.

The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere.

It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of man is tested.

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.

The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience.

No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.

Each day the world is born anew for him who takes it rightly.

Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day, which must be done, whether you like it or not.

Blessed are they who have nothing to say and who cannot be persuaded to say it.

Good luck is the willing handmaid of a upright and energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.

What men prize most is a privilege, even if it be that of chief mourner at a funeral.

Fortune is the rod of the weak, and the staff of the brave.

Fate loves the fearless.

Once to every person and nation come the moment to decide. In the conflict of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.

A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, Which is seen through at once, if love give a man eyes.

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.

Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.