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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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James Russell Lowell
Age: 72 †
Born: 1819
Born: February 22
Died: 1891
Died: August 12
Diplomat
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Poet
Writer
Cambridge
Massachusetts
Simple
Waken
Free
Friendless
Speak
Sons
Nature
Sympathy
Better
Son
Men
Weak
Shall
Word

More quotes by 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
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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
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Whom the heart of man shuts out, Sometimes the heart of God takes in, And fences them all round about With silence mid the worlds loud din.
James Russell Lowell
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Not what we give, but what we share, for the gift without the giver is bare.
James Russell Lowell
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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
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Slow are the steps of freedom, but her feet turn never backward.
James Russell Lowell
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I don't believe in principle, but I do in interest.
James Russell Lowell
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Human nature has a much greater genius for sameness than for originality.
James Russell Lowell
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Freedom needs all her poets it is they Who give her aspirations wings, And to the wiser law of music sway Her wild imaginings.
James Russell Lowell
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Love lives on, and hath a power to bless when they who loved are hidden in the grave.
James Russell Lowell
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A sneer is the weapon of the weak. Like other devil's weapons, it is always cunningly ready to our hand, and there is more poison in the handle than in the point.
James Russell Lowell
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Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,- Yet that scaffold sways the Future, and, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
James Russell Lowell
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Life seems a jest of Fate's contriving.
James Russell Lowell
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Life is the jailer, death the angel sent to draw the unwilling bolts and set us free.
James Russell Lowell
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In creating, the only hard thing is to begin: a grass blade's no easier to make than an oak.
James Russell Lowell
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He who keeps his faith only, cannot be discrowned.
James Russell Lowell
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Wealth may be an excellent thing, for it means power, and it means leisure, it means liberty.
James Russell Lowell
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Winds wanders, and dews drip earthward Rains fall, suns rise and set Earth whirls, and all but to prosper A poor little violet.
James Russell Lowell
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Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.
James Russell Lowell
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Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how.
James Russell Lowell