“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;”

—  James Russell Lowell , The Present Crisis

St. 5
The Present Crisis (1844)
Context: Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light.

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James Russell Lowell 175
American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat 1819–1891

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