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Praise follows truth afar off, and only overtakes her at the grave plausibility clings to her skirts and holds her back till then

James Russell Lowell

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James Russell Lowell
Age: 72 †
Born: 1819
Born: February 22
Died: 1891
Died: August 12
Diplomat
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
Cambridge
Massachusetts
Till
Overtakes
Praise
Clings
Truth
Afar
Back
Skirts
Follows
Grave
Holds
Graves
Plausibility

More quotes by James Russell Lowell

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Silence is sorrow's best food.
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A ginooine statesman should be on his guard, if he must hev beliefs, not to b'lieve 'em too hard.
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One learns more metaphysics from a single temptation than from all the philosophers.
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Making one object, in outward or inward nature, more holy to a single heart is reward enough for a life for the more sympathies we gain or awaken for what is beautiful, by so much deeper will be our sympathy for that which is most beautiful,--the human soul!
James Russell Lowell
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Old gold has a civilizing virtue which new gold must grow old to be capable of secreting.
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To put more faith in lies and hate than truth and love, is the true atheism.
James Russell Lowell
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It is good To lengthen to the last a sunny mood.
James Russell Lowell
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We look at death through the cheap-glazed windows of the flesh, and believe him the monster which the flawed and cracked glass represents him.
James Russell Lowell
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Reading Chaucer is like brushing through the dewy grass at sunrise.
James Russell Lowell
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Incredulity robs us of many pleasures, and gives us nothing in return.
James Russell Lowell
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Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.
James Russell Lowell
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Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.
James Russell Lowell
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New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.
James Russell Lowell
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The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.
James Russell Lowell
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But better far it is to speak One simple word, which now and then Shall waken their free nature in the weak And friendless sons of men.
James Russell Lowell
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The very gnarliest and hardest of hearts has some musical strings in it but they are tuned differently in every one of us.
James Russell Lowell
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True freedom is to share All the chains our brothers wear, And, with heart and hand, to be Earnest to make others free!
James Russell Lowell
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I would hardly change the sorrowful words of the poets for their glad ones. Tears dampen the strings of the lyre, but they grow the tensor for it, and ring even the clearer and more ravishingly.
James Russell Lowell
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Ye come and go incessant we remain Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past Be reverent, ye who flit and are forgot, Of faith so nobly realized as this.
James Russell Lowell
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All free governments, whatever their name, are in reality governments by public opinion and it is on the quality of this public opinion that their prosperity depends. It is, therefore, their first duty to purify the element from which they draw the breath of life.
James Russell Lowell