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

Lowell, James Russell on Adversity
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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."

Lowell, James Russell on Age and Aging
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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."

Lowell, James Russell on Decisions
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"Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."

Lowell, James Russell on Deeds and Good Deeds
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"Democracy give every man the right to be his own oppressor."

Lowell, James Russell on Democracy
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"To educate the intelligence is to expand the horizon of its wants and desires."

Lowell, James Russell on Desire
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"Where one person shapes their life by precept and example, there are a thousand who have shaped it by impulse and circumstances."

Lowell, James Russell on Discipline
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"One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning."

Lowell, James Russell on Experience
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"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."

Lowell, James Russell on Faith
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"Fortune is the rod of the weak, and the staff of the brave."

Lowell, James Russell on Fortune
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"Freedom is the only law which genius knows."

Lowell, James Russell on Freedom
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"It is the privilege of genius that life never grows common place, as it does for the rest of us."

Lowell, James Russell on Genius
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"Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime . Not failure, but low aim is crime."

Lowell, James Russell on Ambition
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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."

Lowell, James Russell on Ancestry
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"Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day, which must be done, whether you like it or not."

Lowell, James Russell on Gratitude
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"Sorrow is the great idealizer."

Lowell, James Russell on Grief
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"The brain can be easy to buy, but the heart never comes to market."

Lowell, James Russell on Heart
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"Some day the soft Ideal that we wooed confronts us fiercely, foe-beset, pursued, and cries reproachful: Was it then my praise, and not myself was loved? Prove now thy truth; I claim of thee the promise of thy youth."

Lowell, James Russell on Ideals and Idealism
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"The true ideal is not opposed to the real but lies in it; and blessed are the eyes that find it."

Lowell, James Russell on Ideals and Idealism
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"The idol is the measure of the worshipper."

Lowell, James Russell on Idols
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"Incredulity robs us of many pleasures, and gives us nothing in return."

Lowell, James Russell on Incredulity
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"It is the rooted instinct in men to admire what is better and more beautiful than themselves."

Lowell, James Russell on Instinct
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"It is not the insurrections of ignorance that are dangerous, but the revolts of the intelligence."

Lowell, James Russell on Intelligence and Intellectuals
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"I don't believe in principle, but I do in interest."

Lowell, James Russell on Interest
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"The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere."

Lowell, James Russell on Introspection
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"True scholarship consists in knowing not what things exist, but what they mean; it is not memory but judgment."

Lowell, James Russell on Knowledge
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"He mastered whatever was not worth the knowing."

Lowell, James Russell on Knowledge
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"The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came."

Lowell, James Russell on Anxiety
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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."

Lowell, James Russell on Argument
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"Light is the symbol of truth."

Lowell, James Russell on Light
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"Good luck is the willing handmaid of a upright and energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty."

Lowell, James Russell on Luck
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"I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife."

Lowell, James Russell on Manners
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"It is mediocrity which makes laws and sets mantraps and spring-guns in the realm of free song, saying thus far shalt thou go and no further."

Lowell, James Russell on Mediocrity
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"Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen."

Lowell, James Russell on Misfortunes
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"In the ocean of baseness, the deeper we get, the easier the sinking."

Lowell, James Russell on Morality
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"The foolish and the dead never change their opinions."

Lowell, James Russell on Opinions
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"Endurance is the crowning quality..."

Lowell, James Russell on Perseverance
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"The eye is the notebook of the poet."

Lowell, James Russell on Poetry and Poets
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"The surest plan to make a man is, think him so."

Lowell, James Russell on Praise
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"What men prize most is a privilege, even if it be that of chief mourner at a funeral."

Lowell, James Russell on Privilege
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