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Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
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 Futures portal with the Pasts blood-rusted key.
-James Russell Lowell
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This imputation of inconsistency is one to which every sound politician and every honest thinker must sooner or later subject himself. The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinion.
-James Russell Lowell
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Be NOBLE! and the nobleness that liesIn other men, sleeping, but never dead,Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
-James Russell Lowell
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As one lamp lights another, nor grows less,So nobleness enkindleth nobleness.
-James Russell Lowell
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Adversity
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Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or by the handle.
-James Russell Lowell
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Age
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As life runs on, the road grows strange with faces new -- and near the end. The milestones into headstones change, Neath every one a friend.
-James Russell Lowell
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Ambition
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Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime . Not failure, but low aim is crime.
-James Russell Lowell
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Ancestry, Ancestors
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They talk about their Pilgrim blood, their birthright high and holy! a mountain-stream that ends in mud thinks is melancholy.
-James Russell Lowell
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Argument & Debate
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There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.
-James Russell Lowell
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Belief
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Incredulity robs us of many pleasures, and gives us nothing in return.
-James Russell Lowell
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Character
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They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak.
-James Russell Lowell
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Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.
-James Russell Lowell
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Class
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What men prize most is a privilege, even if it be that of chief mourner at a funeral.
-James Russell Lowell
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Common Sense
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The question of common sense is what is it good for? A question which would abolish the rose and be answered triumphantly by the cabbage.
-James Russell Lowell
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Compromise
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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
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Control
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Such power there is in clear-eyed self-restraint.
-James Russell Lowell
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Creation
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In creating, the only hard thing is to begin: a grass blade's no easier to make than an oak.
-James Russell Lowell
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Crime
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Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
-James Russell Lowell
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Criticism
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A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.
-James Russell Lowell
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A sneer is the weapon of the weak.
-James Russell Lowell
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Curiosity
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I don't believe in principle, but I do in interest.
-James Russell Lowell
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Death
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Life is the jailer, death the angel sent to draw the unwilling bolts and set us free.
-James Russell Lowell
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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.
-James Russell Lowell
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Decisions
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Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide; In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side.
-James Russell Lowell
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Democracy
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Democracy give every man the right to be his own oppressor.
-James Russell Lowell
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Books by and about James Russell Lowell