Quotes By James Russell Lowell

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.

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.

There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates.

Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts.

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.

I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.

Folks never understand the folks they hate.

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

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

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

The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.

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

The eye is the notebook of the poet.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

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

If youth be a defect, it is one that we outgrow only too soon.

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.

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.

Children are God's Apostles, sent forth, day by day, to preach of love, and hope, and peace.

Death is delightful. Death is dawn, The waking from a weary night Of fevers unto truth and light.

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