James Russell Lowell quotes

My gran'ther's rule was safer 'n 'tis to crow:
Don't never prophesy — onless ye know.

Our papers don't purtend to print on'y wut Guv'ment choose,
An' thet insures us all to git the very best o' noose.

New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth;
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.

Two meanings have our lightest fantasies, —
One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.

The surest plan to make a Man
Is, think him so.

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.

Not only around our infancy
Doth heaven with all its splendors lie;
Daily, with souls that cringe and plot,
We Sinais climb and know it not.

No, never say nothin' without you're compelled tu,
An' then don't say nothin' thet you can be held tu.

Under the yaller pines I house,
When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented,
An' hear among their furry boughs
The baskin' west-wind purr contented.

Though old the thought and oft expressed,
'Tis his at last who says it best.

The Maple puts her corals on in May,
While loitering frosts about the lowlands cling,
To be in tune with what the robins sing.

It was in making education not only common to all, but in some sense compulsory on all, that the destiny of the free republics of America was practically settled.

I don't believe in princerple,
But oh I du in interest.

There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge,
Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge.

A marciful Providunce fashioned us holler
O' purpose thet we might our principles swaller.

Our slender life runs rippling by, and glides
Into the silent hollow of the past;
What is there that abides
To make the next age better for the last?

They came three thousand miles, and died,
To keep the Past upon its throne;
Unheard, beyond the ocean tide,
Their English mother made her moan.

Dear common flower, that grow'st beside the way,
Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold,
First pledge of blithesome [[May],
Which children pluck, and, full of pride uphold.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

All kin' o' smily round the lips,
An' teary round the lashes.