American poet & diplomat (1819-1891)
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
Chaucer
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Cambridge Thirty Years Ago
No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him. There is always work,
And tools to work withal, for those who will;
And blessed are the horny hands of toil.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
A Glance Behind the Curtain
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
The Present Crisis
Light is the symbol of truth.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Conversations on Some of the Old Poets
Jealous, the old gods
Shut it in shadow,
Wisely they ward it,
Egg of the serpent,
Bane to them all.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
"The Voyage to Vinland"
The petals numbered but degrade to prose
Summer's triumphant poem of the rose.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
E. G. DE R.
A profound common sense is the best genius for statesmanship.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
"Abraham Lincoln", Political Essays
It is not unusual to make a single work the opportunity for passing definitive judgment upon an author. This is not our view of the duty of a critic. He is limited to the book before him, and all departures from it are impertinences.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
The Round Table
The nurse of full-grown souls is solitude.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Columbus
My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 'tis to crow:
Don't never prophesy -- onless ye know.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
The Biglow Papers
Old events have modern meanings; only that survives
Of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
"Mahmood the Image-Breaker"
A sneer is the weapon of the weak.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Conversations on Some of the Old Poets
When the birds their sweethearts win
And champagne is in the air,
Love is here, and Love is there,
Love is welcome everywhere.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
"Scherzo"
Ez to my princerples, I glory
In hevin' nothin' o' the sort.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
The Biglow Papers
Summer's cheek too soon turns thin,
Days grow briefer, sunshine rare;
Autumn from his cannekin
Blows the froth to chase Despair.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
"Scherzo"
They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be,
Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
The Present Crisis
A marciful Providunce fashioned us holler
O' purpose thet we might our principles swaller.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
The Biglow Papers
One of the things particularly admirable in the public utterances of President Lincoln is a certain tone of familiar dignity, which, while it is perhaps the most difficult attainment of mere style, is also no doubtful indication of personal character. There must be something essentially noble in an elective ruler who can descend to the level of confidential ease without forfeiting respect, something very manly in one who can break through the etiquette of his conventional rank and trust himself to the reason and intelligence of those who have elected him.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
"Abraham Lincoln", Political Essays
But life is sweet, though all that makes it sweet
Lessen like sound of friends' departing feet;
And Death is beautiful as feet of friend
Coming with welcome at our journey's end.
For me Fate gave, whate'er she else denied,
A nature sloping to the southern side;
I thank her for it, though when clouds arise
Such natures double-darken gloomy skies.
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Epistle to George William Curtis