The course of a great statesman resembles that of navigable rivers, avoiding immovable obstacles with noble bends of concession, seeking the broad levels of opinion on which men soonest settle and longest dwell, following and marking the almost imperceptible slopes… — James Russell Lowell Copy Share Image
As life runs on, the road grows strange with faces new - and near the end. The milestones into headstones change, Neath every one… — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
Where one person shapes their life by precept and example, there are a thousand who have shaped it by impulse and circumstances. — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
Most religion-mongers have bated their paradises with a bit of toasted cheese. They have tempted the body with large promises of possessions in their… — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
It is beginning to be doubtful whether Parliament and Congress sit in Westminster and Washington, or in the editorial rooms of the leading journals,--so… — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
[B]ut in literature, it should be remembered, a thing always becomes his at last who says it best, and thus makes it his own. — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
It may be glorious to write Thoughts that shall glad the two or three High souls, like those far stars that come in sight… — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
It is the vain endeavor to make ourselves what we are not that has strewn history with so many broken purposes and lives left… — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
Take winter as you find him, and he turns out to be a thoroughly honest fellow; with no nonsense in him, which is a… — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
The intellect has only one failing, which, to be sure, is a very considerable one. It has no conscience. — James Russell Lowell Copy Share
