James Russell Lowell Quotes

The true ideal is not opposed to the real but lies in it; and blessed are the eyes that find it.

Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.

It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.

Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.

Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

It (democracy)is supposed to reduce all mankind to a dead level of mediocrity in character and culture, to vulgarize men’s conceptions of life, and therefore their code of morals, manners, and conduct – to endanger the rights of property and possession. But I believe that the real gravamen of the charges lies in the habit […]

If youth be a defect, it is one that we outgrow only too soon.

A wise scepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.

Nature fits all her children with something to do, he who would write and can’t write can surely review.

Incredulity robs us of many pleasures, and gives us nothing in return.