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Quotes by Lowell
141 quotations from The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1896), with the subject each one is filed under.
Chorus of the Eumenides. Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.— filed under Action
But all God's angels come to us disguised : Sorrow and sickness, poverty and death, One after other lift their frowning masks, And we behold the Seraph's face beneath, All radiant with the glory and the calm Of having looked upon the front of God.— filed under Angels
There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.— filed under Argument
He seemed a cherub who had lost his way And wandered hither, so his stay With us was short, and 'twas most meet That he should be no delver in earth's clod, Nor need to pause and cleanse his feet To stand before his God: O blest word-Evermore!— filed under Babyhood
A beggar through the world am I, From place to place I wander by. Fill up my pilgrim's scrip for me, For Christ's sweet sake and charity.— filed under Belief
O thou, whose days are yet all spring, Faith, blighted once, is past retrieving; Experience is a dumb, dead thing; The victory's in believing. C.— filed under Belief
They believed-faith, I'm puzzled-I think I may call Their belief a believing in nothing at all, Or something of that sort; I know they all went For a general union of total dissent.— filed under Belief
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.— filed under Benevolence
I know a falcon swift and peerless As e'er was cradled in the pine; No bird had ever eye so fearless, Or wing so strong as this of mine.— filed under Birds-Falcon
A Bréton Legend. In English Lyrics. The sobered robin, hunger-silent now, Seeks cedar-berries blue, his autumn cheer.— filed under Birds-Robin
Dedication. If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I would answer that there is one book better than a cheap book, and that is a book honestly come by.— filed under Books
Committee on Patents, Jan. 29, 1886. What a sense of security in an old book which Time has criticised for us!— filed under Books
Got the ill name of augurs, because they were bores.— filed under Bores
All that hath been majestical In life or death, since time began, Is native in the simple heart of all, The angel heart of man.— filed under Character
A nature wise With finding in itself the types of all, - With watching from the dim verge of the time What things to be are visible in the gleams Thrown forward on them from the luminous past,- Wise with the history of its own frail heart, With reverence and sorrow, and with love, Broad as the world, for freedom and for man.— filed under Character
Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts.— filed under Character
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.— filed under Character
For she was jes' the quiet kind Whose naturs never vary, Like streams that keep a summer mind Snowhid in Jenooary.— filed under Character
It is by presence of mind in untried emer gencies that the native metal of a man is tested.— filed under Character
Abraham Lincoln. Our Pilgrim stock wuz pethed with hardihood.— filed under Character
Soft-heartedness, in times like these, Shows in the upper story.— filed under Character
Address, March 4th, 1865. A beggar through the world am I,- From place to place I wander by. Fill up my pilgrim's scrip for me, For Christ's sweet sake and charity.— filed under Charity
O chime of sweet Saint Charity, Peal soon that Easter morn When Christ for all shall risen be, And in all hearts new-born! That Pentecost when utterance clear To all men shall be given, When all shall say My Brother here, And hear My Son in heaven!— filed under Charity
It is good To lengthen to the last a sunny mood.— filed under Childhood
And but two ways are offered to our will, Toil with rare triumph, ease with safe disgrace, The problem still for us and all of human race.— filed under Comparisons
Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us, The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us, We bargain for the graves we lie in; At the devil's booth are all things sold, Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; For a cap and bells our lives we pay, Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking, 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking, No price is set on the lavish summer; June may be had by the poorest comer.— filed under Compensation
Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man: He's been on all sides that give places or pelf; But consistency still wuz a part of his plan; He's been true to one party, and that is, himself;- So John P. Robinson, he Sez he shall vote for Gineral C.— filed under Conspiracy
Earth's biggest Country's gut her soul An' risen up Earth's Greatest Nation.— filed under Countries-America
What! shall one monk, scarce known beyond his cell, Front Rome's far-reaching bolts, and scorn her frown? Brave Luther answered, "Yes"; that thunder's swell Rocked Europe, and discharmed the triple crown.— filed under Courage
Pope's trans Nature they say, doth dote, And cannot make a man Save on some worn-out plan, Repeating us by rote.— filed under Alphonso The Wise
A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.— filed under Criticism
Shakespeare Once More. Nature fits all her children with something to do, He who would write and can't write, can surely review; Can set up a small booth as critic and sell us his Petty conceit and his pettier jealousies.— filed under Criticism
He who esteems the Virginia reel A bait to draw saints from their spiritual weal, And regards the quadrille as a far greater knavery Than crushing His African children with slavery, Since all who take part in a waltz or cotillon Are mounted for hell on the devil's own pillion, Who, as every true orthodox Christian well knows, Approaches the heart through the door of the toes.— filed under Dancing
And what they dare to dream of, dare to do.— filed under Daring
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. C.— filed under Death
Tower of Prometheus on Mount Caucasus. Once to every man and nation come the moment to decide, In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side.— filed under Decision
The thing we long for, that we are For one transcendent moment.— filed under Desire
The future works out great men's destinies : The present is enough for common souls, Who, never looking forward, are indeed Mere clay wherein the footprints of their age Are petrified forever.— filed under Destiny
Feb. 21, 1859. New occasions teach new duties. St.— filed under Duty
Thet tells the story! Thet's wut we shall git By tryin' squirtguns on the burnin' Pit; For the day never comes when it'll du To kick off dooty like a worn-out shoe.— filed under Duty
Johnson. 1772. But 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.— filed under Education
Augustine. One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.— filed under Experience
The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience.— filed under Faith
Sentiment is intellectualized emotion, emotion precipitated, as it were, in pretty crystals by the fancy.— filed under Fancy
and the Sentimentalists. Two meanings have our lightest fantasies, One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.— filed under Fancy
Her new bark is worse than ten times her old bite.— filed under Faults
They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak.— filed under Fear
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, High-hearted buccaneers, o'erjoyed that they An Eldorado in the grass have found, Which not the rich earth's ample round May match in wealth, thou art more dear to me Than all the prouder summer-blooms may be.— filed under Flowers-Daisy
Violet! sweet violet! Thine eyes are full of tears; Are they wet Even yet With the thought of other years? S.— filed under Flowers-Violet
Winds wander, and dews drip earthward; Rains fall, suns rise and set; Earth whirls, and all but to prosper A poor little violet.— filed under Flowers-Violet
Wit. The right to be a cussed fool Is safe from all devices human, It's common (ez a gin'l rule) To every critter born of woman.— filed under Folly
Greeley. Aug. 22, 1862. See Raymond's "History of Lincoln's Administration." Freedom needs all her poets; it is they Who give her aspirations wings, And to the wiser law of music sway Her wild imaginings.— filed under Freedom
There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not, sooner or later, responded.— filed under Genius
Roast Pig. Not what we give, but what we share, - For the gift without the giver is bare.— filed under Gifts
This goin' ware glory waits ye haint one agreeable feetur.— filed under Glory
Standish. IV. An' you've gut to git up airly Ef you want to take in God.— filed under God
'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 'Tis only God may be had for the asking.— filed under God
The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.— filed under Goodness
There are slave-drivers quietly whipped underground, There bookbinders, done up in boards, are fast bound, There card-players wait till the last trump be played, There all the choice spirits get finally laid, There the babe that's unborn is supplied with a berth, There men without legs get their six feet of earth, There lawyers repose, each wrapped up in his case, There seekers of office are sure of a place, There defendant and plaintiff get equally cast, There shoemakers quietly stick to the last.— filed under Gratitude
A great man is made up of qualities tha meet or make great occasions.— filed under Greatness
Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, We are happy now because God wills it.— filed under Happiness
Johnson. 1754. So we're all right, an' I, for one, Don't think our cause'll lose in vally By rammin' Scriptur' in our gun, An' gittin' Natur' for an ally.— filed under Help
of Johnson. P. 100. The green grass floweth like a stream Into the ocean's blue.— filed under Herbage
'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves Of a legendary virtue carved upon our father's graves.— filed under History
Laborin' man an' laborin' woman Hev one glory an' one shame; Ev'ythin' thet's done inhuman Injers all on 'em the same.— filed under Humanity
Draper. When I could not sleep for cold I had fire enough in my brain, And builded with roofs of gold My beautiful castles in Spain!— filed under Imagination
The very room, coz she was in, Seemed warm f'om floor to ceilin'.— filed under Influence
Listen! O, listen! Here ever hum the golden bees Underneath full-blossomed trees, At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned.— filed under Insects-Bee
Firefly. The fireflies o'er the meadow In pulses come and go.— filed under Insects-Flea
Says he "I'd better call agin;" Says she-"Think likely, Mister!" Thet last word pricked him like a pin, An'-Wal, he up an' kist her.— filed under Kisses
Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction.— filed under Life
Not as all other women are Is she that to my soul is dear; Her glorious fancies come from far, Beneath the silver evening star, And yet her heart is ever near.— filed under Love
True love is but a humble, low born thing, And hath its food served up in earthenware; It is a thing to walk with, hand in hand, Through the every-dayness of this workday world.— filed under Love
Before man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.— filed under Man
Near Washington. Three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge.— filed under Man
to a Friend. He strove among God's suffering poor One gleam of brotherhood to send; The dungeon oped its hungry door To give the truth one martyr more, Then shut, and here behold the end!— filed under Martyrdom
O wild and wondrous midnight, There is a might in thee To make the charmed body Almost like spirit be, And give it some faint glimpses Of immortality!— filed under Midnight
of the Soul. Stern men with empires in their brains.— filed under Mind
Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.— filed under Misfortune
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.— filed under Months-June
A woman's love Is mighty, but a mother's heart is weak, And by its weakness overcomes. C.— filed under Motherhood
For there's nothing we read of in torture's inventions, Like a well-meaning dunce, with the best of intentions.— filed under Motive
His Nature's a glass of champagne with the foam on 't, As tender as Fletcher, as witty as Beaumont; So his best things are done in the flash of the moment.— filed under Nature
God makes sech nights, all white an' still Fur'z you can look or listen, Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill, All silence an' all glisten.— filed under Night
Be noble! and the nobleness that lies In other men, sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.— filed under Nobility
And folks are beginning to think it looks odd, To choke a poor scamp for the glory of God.— filed under Occupations-Law
Goldsmith's Deserted Village. There is no better ballast for keeping the mind steady on its keel, and saving it from all risk of crankiness, than business.— filed under Occupations-Mercantile
We remain Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past.— filed under Passion
Hiawatha's Wooing. Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. LONGFELLOW A Psalm of Life St. 9. Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts. 1..— filed under Patience
Memoirs. London and Westminster Review. 1838. He gives us the very quintessence of perception.— filed under Perception
For, of all compositions, he thought that the sonnet Best repaid all the toil you expended upon it.— filed under Poetry
It ["The Ancient Mariner"] is marvellous in its mastery over that delightfully fortuitous inconsequence that is the adamantine logic of dreamland.— filed under Poetry
Never did Poesy appear So full of heaven to me, as when I saw how it would pierce through pride and fear To the lives of coarsest men.— filed under Poetry
These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred, Each softly lucent as a rounded moon; The diver Omar plucked them from their bed, Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.— filed under Poetry
A terrible thing to be pestered with poets! But, alas, she is dumb, and the proverb holds good, She never will cry till she's out of the wood!— filed under Poets
The clear, sweet singer with the crown of snow Not whiter than the thoughts that housed below!— filed under Poets
Marriage of the Duke of Savoy with Catherine of Austria. Aspiration sees only one side of every question; possession, many.— filed under Possession
Ez to my princerples, I glory sort. In hevin' nothin' o' the sort.— filed under Principle
I don't believe in princerple, But, oh, I du in interest.— filed under Principle
"Reconstruction," August, 1866. From lower to the higher next, Not to the top, is Nature's text; And embryo good, to reach full stature, Absorbs the evil in its nature.— filed under Progression
Behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.— filed under Providence
Though old the thought and oft exprest, 'Tis his at last who says it best.— filed under Rain
But he turned up his nose at their murmuring and shamming, And cared (shall I say?) not a d-n for their damning; So they first read him out of their church and next minute Turned round and declared he had never been in it.— filed under Religion
God is not dumb, that he should speak no more; If thou hast wanderings in the wilderness And find'st not Sinai, 'tis thy soul is poor.— filed under Religion
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.— filed under Religion
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?"— filed under Resolution
Within that awful volume lies The mystery of mysteries! Happiest they of human race, To whom God has granted grace To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, To lift the latch, and force the way; And better had they ne'er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn. SCOTT Monastery. Ch. XII. Our seasons have no fixed returns, Without our will they come and go; At noon our sudden summer burns. Ere sunset all is snow.— filed under Scripture
What visionary tints the year puts on, When falling leaves falter through motionless air Or numbly cling and shiver to be gone! How shimmer the low flats and pastures bare, As with her nectar Hebe Autumn fills The bowl between me and those distant hills, And smiles and shakes abroad her misty, tremulous hair!— filed under Sows
Sin. See Longfellow's trans. Poetic Aphorisms. Daily with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinais climb and know it not. X.— filed under Sin
Argument. May 14, 1772. They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; * * * * * * They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three.— filed under Slavery
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity. Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.— filed under Solitude
Interlude. But better far it is to speak One simple word, which now and then Shall waken their free nature in the weak And friendless sons of men.— filed under Sympathy
Talent is that which is in a man's power! genius is that in whose power a man is.— filed under Talents
In general those who nothing have to say Contrive to spend the longest time in doing it.— filed under Talk
City Pent. All kin' o' smily round the lips An' teary roun' the lashes.— filed under Tears
Johnsoniana. 467. Of my merit On that pint you yourself may jedge: All is, I never drink no sperit, Nor I haint never signed no pledge.— filed under Sam'L Johnson-Hannah More's
All thoughts that mould the age begin Deep down within the primitive soul.— filed under Thought
The traitor to Humanity is the traitor most accursed; Man is more than Constitutions; better rot beneath the sod, Than be true to Church and State while we are doubly false to God.— filed under Treason
Ash. Fraxinus. The ash her purple drops forgivingly And sadly, breaking not the general hush; The maple swamps glow like a sunset sea, Each leaf a ripple with its separate flush; All round the wood's edge creeps the skirting blaze, Of bushes low, as when, on cloudy days, Ere the rain falls, the cautious farmer burns his brush.— filed under Trees And Plants-Ash
Birch. Betula. Rippling through thy branches goes the sunshine, Among thy leaves that palpitate forever, And in thee, a pining nymph had prisoned The soul, once of some tremulous inland river, Quivering to tell her woe, but ah! dumb, dumb forever.— filed under Trees And Plants-Chestnut
Cedar. Cedrus. O'er yon bare knoll the pointed cedar shadows Drowse on the crisp, gray moss.— filed under Trees And Plants-Chestnut
Chestnut. Castanea Vesca. When I see the chestnut letting All her lovely blossoms falter down, I think "Alas the day!" JEAN INGELOw-The Warbling of Blackbirds. The chestnuts, lavish of their long-hid gold, To the faint Summer, beggared now and old, Pour back the sunshine hoarded 'neath her favoring eye.— filed under Trees And Plants-Chestnut
The pine is the mother of legends.— filed under Trees And Plants-Palm
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.— filed under Trees And Plants-Palm
Longfellow's trans. Poetic Aphorisms. Truth. Get but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like A star new-born that drops into its place And which, once circling in its placid round, Not all the tumult of the earth can shake.— filed under Truth
Put golden padlocks on Truth's lips, be callous as ye will, From soul to soul, o'er all the world, leaps one electric thrill.— filed under Truth
Fugitive Slaves near Washington. Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust, Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just; Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified.— filed under Truth
Truth forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on the throne.— filed under Truth
An angel stood and met my gaze, Through the low doorway of my tent; The tent is struck, the vision stays; I only know she came and went.— filed under Visions
Ez fer war, I call it murder, - Ther you hev it plain and flat; I don't want to go no furder Than my Testyment fer that.— filed under War
It don't seem hardly right, John, When both my hands was full, To stump me to a fight, John, Your cousin, too, John Bull! Ole Uncle S. sez he, "I guess We know it now," sez he, "The lion's paw is all the law, According to J. B., That's fit for you an me."— filed under War
We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.— filed under War
Pope's trans. Soft-heartedness, in times like these, Shows sof'ness in the upper story!— filed under Weakness
The rich man's son inherits cares; The bank may break, the factory burn, A breath may burst his bubble shares, And soft, white hands could hardly earn A living that would serve his turn.— filed under Wealth
To win the secret of a weed's plain heart.— filed under Welcome
Earth's noblest thing, a Woman perfected.— filed under Sam'L Johnson-Seward's
'Twas kin' o' kingdom-come to look On sech a blessed cretur.— filed under Sam'L Johnson-Seward's
His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, But hern went pity-Zekle.— filed under Wooing
There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one, Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on.— filed under Words
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!— filed under Work
One day with life and heart, Is more than time enough to find a world.— filed under Work