The idol is the measure of the worshipper. James Russell Lowell More Quotes by James Russell Lowell More Quotes From James Russell Lowell Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us. James Russell Lowell dross earth giving There is surely room for yet another schoolmaster when a score of seers advertise themselves in Boston newspapers. James Russell Lowell boston newspapers rooms The first lesson of life is to burn our own smoke; that is, not to inflict on outsiders our personal sorrows and petty morbidness, not to keep thinking of ourselves as exceptional cases. James Russell Lowell life-lesson sorrow thinking Get but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like James Russell Lowell stars truth earth All birds during the pairing season become more or less sentimental, and murmur soft nothings in a tone very unlike the grinding-organ repetition and loudness of their habitual song. The crow is very comical as a lover; and to hear him trying to soften his croak to the proper Saint-Preux standard has something the effect of a Mississippi boatman quoting Tennyson. James Russell Lowell crow song bird The greater your real strength and power, the quieter it will be exercised. James Russell Lowell vehemence greater real Old gold has a civilizing virtue which new gold must grow old to be capable of secreting. James Russell Lowell wealth virtue gold The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down, and still fluttered down the snow. James Russell Lowell swans winter snow Not suffering, but faint heart, is worst of woes. James Russell Lowell woe suffering heart The nunneries of silent nooks, the murmured longing of the wood. James Russell Lowell longing silent woods A word once vulgarized can never be rehabilitated. James Russell Lowell To be young is surely the best, if the most precarious, gift of life. James Russell Lowell gifts-of-life youth young Democracy is that form of society, no matter what its political classification, in which every man has a chance and knows that he has it. James Russell Lowell democracy political men Many-sidedness of culture makes our vision clearer and keener in particulars. James Russell Lowell vision culture Ef you want peace, the thing you've gut to du James Russell Lowell shows want peace Enthusiasm begets enthusiasm, eloquence produces conviction for the moment; but it is only by truth to Nature and the everlasting institutions of mankind that those abiding influences are won that enlarge from generation to generation. James Russell Lowell abiding generations enthusiasm Metaphor is no argument, though it be sometimes the gunpowder to drive one home, and imbed it in the memory. James Russell Lowell gunpowder home memories Moral supremacy is the only one that leaves monuments, and not ruins, behind it. James Russell Lowell supremacy ruins morality Men have their intellectual ancestry, and the likeness of some one of them is forever unexpectedly flashing out in the features of a descendant, it may be after a gap of several centuries. In the parliament of the present every man represents a constituency of the past. James Russell Lowell forever men past Piety is indifferent whether she enters at the eye or at the ear. There is none of the senses at which she does not knock one day or other. The Puritans forgot this, and thrust Beauty out of the meeting-house and slammed the door in her face. James Russell Lowell eye house doors