Quote

Human nature has a much greater genius for sameness than for originality.

James Russell Lowell

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

James Russell Lowell
Age: 72 †
Born: 1819
Born: February 22
Died: 1891
Died: August 12
Diplomat
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
Cambridge
Massachusetts
Greater
Nature
Human
Humans
Much
Sameness
Originality
Genius

More quotes by James Russell Lowell

Image
Aspiration sees only one side of every question possession many.
James Russell Lowell
Image
No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself, who would not exchange the finest show for the poorest reality, who does not so love his work that he is not only glad to give himself for it, but finds rather a gain than a sacrifice in the surrender.
James Russell Lowell
Image
Truth is quite beyond the reach of satire. There is so brave a simplicity in her that she can no more be made ridiculous than an oak or a pine.
James Russell Lowell
Image
They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak.
James Russell Lowell
Image
The English Puritans pulled down church and state to rebuild Zion on the ruins, and all the while it was not Zion, but America, they were building.
James Russell Lowell
Image
The greatest homage we can pay to truth, is to use it.
James Russell Lowell
Image
It is quite too common a practice, both in readers and the more superficial class of critics, to judge a book by what it is not, a matter much easier to determine than what it is.
James Russell Lowell
Image
A ginooine statesman should be on his guard, if he must hev beliefs, not to b'lieve 'em too hard.
James Russell Lowell
Image
Fortune is the rod of the weak, and the staff of the brave.
James Russell Lowell
Image
'T is heaven alone that is given away 'T is only God may be had for the asking.
James Russell Lowell
Image
Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.
James Russell Lowell
Image
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.
James Russell Lowell
Image
The story of any one man's real experience finds its startling parallel in that of every one of us.
James Russell Lowell
Image
Faith in God, faith in man, faith in work: this is the short formula in which we may sum up the teachings of the founders of New England,--a creed ample enough for this life and the next.
James Russell Lowell
Image
We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.
James Russell Lowell
Image
The pressure of public opinion is like the pressure of the atmosphere you can't see it - but all the same, it is sixteen pounds to the square inch.
James Russell Lowell
Image
Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes, - they were souls that stood alone, While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone, Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine, By one man's plain truth to manhood and to God's supreme design.
James Russell Lowell
Image
Borrowed garments never keep one warm.
James Russell Lowell
Image
Against the windows the storm comes dashing, Through tattered foliage the hail tears crashing, The blue lightning flashes, The rapid hail clashes... The thunder is rumbling And crashing and crumbling.
James Russell Lowell
Image
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