James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell

27 quotes

Known primarily as an American poet and diplomat, James Russell Lowell also happens to be one of the most quotable figures in our collection. The range of their thinking — from Truth to God — speaks to an intellectual restlessness that shows in every quote. Discover 40 of James Russell Lowell's most memorable quotes, ranging across Truth, God, Change, Great, and Government. As James Russell Lowell put it: "Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor."

“Every person born into this world their work is born with them.”

— James Russell Lowell

Work

All Quotes by James Russell Lowell

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

— James Russell Lowell

Death

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

— James Russell Lowell

Great

“The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.”

— James Russell Lowell

Alone

“Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.”

— James Russell Lowell

Politics

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

— James Russell Lowell

Government

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

— James Russell Lowell

Imagination

“Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime. Not failure, but low aim is crime.”

— James Russell Lowell

Failure

“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.”

— James Russell Lowell

God

“Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed.”

— James Russell Lowell

Truth

“Not failure, but low aim, is crime.”

— James Russell Lowell

Failure

“On one issue at least, men and women agree they both distrust women.”

— James Russell Lowell

Women

“Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.”

— James Russell Lowell

Anger

“A great man is made up of qualities that meet or make great occasions.”

— James Russell Lowell

Great

“Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.”

— James Russell Lowell

Truth

“Once to every person and nation come the moment to decide. In the conflict of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.”

— James Russell Lowell

Truth

“Poetry is something to make us wiser and better, by continually revealing those types of beauty and truth, which God has set in all men's souls.”

— James Russell Lowell

Beauty

“Freedom is the only law which genius knows.”

— James Russell Lowell

Freedom

“To educate the intelligence is to expand the horizon of its wants and desires.”

— James Russell Lowell

Intelligence

“One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.”

— James Russell Lowell

Experience

“The heart forgets its sorrow and ache.”

— James Russell Lowell

Sympathy