James Russell Lowell
United States
22 Feb 1819 // 12 Aug 1891
Poet, Diplomat
22 Feb 1819 // 12 Aug 1891
Poet, Diplomat
Quotes
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Reputation is in itself only a farthing candle, of a wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.
In all literary history there is no such figure as Dante, no such homogeneousness of life and works, such loyalty to ideas, such sublime irrecognition of the unessential.
Second Series. Dante
I love her with a love as still
As a broad river's peaceful might,
Which by high tower and lowly mill,
Goes wandering at its own will,
And yet does ever flow aright.
As a broad river's peaceful might,
Which by high tower and lowly mill,
Goes wandering at its own will,
And yet does ever flow aright.
No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him. There is always work,
And tools to work withal, for those who will;
And blessed are the horny hands of toil.
Is not born with him. There is always work,
And tools to work withal, for those who will;
And blessed are the horny hands of toil.
A Glance behind the Curtain
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.
Each softly lucent as a rounded moon;
The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,
Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
In a copy of Omar Khayyam
Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man;
He 's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf;
But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,—
He 's ben true to one party, an' thet is himself.
He 's ben on all sides thet give places or pelf;
But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,—
He 's ben true to one party, an' thet is himself.
The Biglow Papers
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'?
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'?
Epigram
Ez fer war, I call it murder,
There you hev it plain an' flat;
I don't want to go no furder
Than my Testyment fer that.
...
An' you 've gut to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.
There you hev it plain an' flat;
I don't want to go no furder
Than my Testyment fer that.
...
An' you 've gut to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.
The Biglow Papers
The wisest man could ask no more of fate
Than to be simple, modest, manly, true,
Safe from the many, honored by the few;
Nothing to court in Church, or World, or State,
But inwardly in secret to be great.
Than to be simple, modest, manly, true,
Safe from the many, honored by the few;
Nothing to court in Church, or World, or State,
But inwardly in secret to be great.
He gives us the very quintessence of perception,—the clearly crystalized precipitation of all that is most precious in the ferment of impression after the impertinent and obtrusive particulars have evaporated from the memory.
Coleridge
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays