James Russell Lowell Quotes

Wealth may be an excellent thing, for it means power, and it means leisure, it means liberty.

~ James Russell Lowell

He who is firmly seated in authority soon learns to think security, and not progress, the highest lesson of statecraft.

~ James Russell Lowell

Not failure, but low aim, is crime.

~ James Russell Lowell

The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came.

~ James Russell Lowell

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.

~ James Russell Lowell

Communism means barbarism.

~ James Russell Lowell

Compromise makes a good umbrella, but a poor roof; it is temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.

~ James Russell Lowell

Democracy is the form of government that gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

~ James Russell Lowell

One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.

~ James Russell Lowell

Fortune is the rod of the weak, and the staff of the brave.

~ James Russell Lowell

It is the privilege of genius that to it life never grows commonplace as to the rest of us.

~ James Russell Lowell

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

~ James Russell Lowell

The idol is the measure of the worshipper.

~ James Russell Lowell

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

~ James Russell Lowell

It is the rooted instinct in men to admire what is better and more beautiful than themselves.

~ James Russell Lowell

It is not the insurrections of ignorance that are dangerous, but the revolts of the intelligence.

~ James Russell Lowell

I don't believe in principle, but I do in interest.

~ James Russell Lowell