James Russell Lowell: Trending quotes (page 2)

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“And what is so rare as a day in June?”

James Russell Lowell

Prelude to Pt. I, st. 5
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)
Context: And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, grasping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.

“The framers of the American Constitution were far from wishing or intending to found a democracy in the strict sense of the word, though, as was inevitable, every expansion of the scheme of government they elaborated has been in a democratical direction.”

James Russell Lowell

On Democracy (6 October 1884)
Context: The framers of the American Constitution were far from wishing or intending to found a democracy in the strict sense of the word, though, as was inevitable, every expansion of the scheme of government they elaborated has been in a democratical direction. But this has been generally the slow result of growth, and not the sudden innovation of theory; in fact, they had a profound disbelief in theory, and knew better than to commit the folly of breaking with the past. They were not seduced by the French fallacy that a new system of government could be ordered like a new suit of clothes. They would as soon have thought of ordering a new suit of flesh and skin. It is only on the roaring loom of time that the stuff is woven for such a vesture of their thought and experience as they were meditating. They recognized fully the value of tradition and habit as the great allies of permanence and stability. They all had that distaste for innovation which belonged to their race, and many of them a distrust of human nature derived from their creed.

Democracy , Sense

“Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving”

James Russell Lowell

Prelude to Pt. I, st. 7
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)
Context: Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving;
'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,—
'Tis the natural way of living:
Who knows whither the clouds have fled?
In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake;
And the eyes forget the tears they have shed,
The heart forgets its sorrow and ache;
The soul partakes the season's youth,
And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe
Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth,
Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.

Joy , Happiness

“Count me o'er earth's chosen heroes, — they were souls that stood alone”

James Russell Lowell The Present Crisis

St. 12
The Present Crisis (1844)
Context: 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.

Soul

“If ye do not feel the chain,
When it works a brother's pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed,
Slaves unworthy to be freed?”

James Russell Lowell

St. 1
"Stanzas on Freedom" (1843)
Context: If there breathe on earth a slave,
Are ye truly free and brave?
If ye do not feel the chain,
When it works a brother's pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed,
Slaves unworthy to be freed?

Pain , Feeling

“Fate loves the fearless.”

James Russell Lowell

Variant: Fate loves the fearless.

Love , Fate

“Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.”

James Russell Lowell

Literary Essays, vol. II (1870–1890), Rousseau and the Sentimentalists

Beauty , Love , World , Beauty

“AND what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;”

James Russell Lowell
Life , Perfection

“There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer.”

James Russell Lowell

Prelude to Pt. I, st. 3
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)

Summer

“The capacity of indignation makes an essential part of the outfit of every honest man.”

James Russell Lowell

On a Certain Condescension in Foreigners (1869)

Parting

“He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of statecraft.”

James Russell Lowell

Literary Essays, vol. II (1870–1890)

Thinking , Learning

“Darkness is strong, and so is Sin,
But surely God endures forever.”

James Russell Lowell

Villa Franca.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

God , Strong

“To be told that we ought not to agitate the question of Slavery, when it is that which is forever agitating us, is like telling a man with the fever and ague on him to stop shaking and he will be cured. The discussion of Slavery is said to be dangerous, but dangerous to what?…Discussion is the very life of free institutions, the fruitful mother of all political and moral enlightenment, and yet the question of all questions must be tabooed.”

James Russell Lowell

The Election in November 1860 (1860)

Life , Question

“T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look
On sech a blessed cretur.”

James Russell Lowell

The Courtin' .
The Biglow Papers (1848–1866), Series II (1866)

“To say why gals acts so or so,
Or don't, 'ould be persumin';
Mebby to mean yes an' say no
Comes nateral to women.”

James Russell Lowell

The Courtin' .
The Biglow Papers (1848–1866), Series II (1866)

Women

“Communism means barbarism, but Socialism means, or wishes to mean, cooperation and community of interests, sympathy, the giving to the hands not so large a share as to the brains, but a larger share than hitherto in the wealth they must combine to produce - means, in short, the practical application of Christianity to life, and has in it the secret of an orderly and benign reconstruction.”

James Russell Lowell

On Democracy (6 October 1884)

Life , Secret , Communication , Wealth

“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?"”

James Russell Lowell

Epigram.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Life , Fate , Training

“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.”

James Russell Lowell

No. 2
The Biglow Papers (1848–1866), Series I (1848)

Parting