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 - Adversity)

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 - Age and Aging)

Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime . Not failure, but low aim is crime. - (Lowell, James Russell - Ambition)

They talk about their Pilgrim blood, their birthright high and holy! a mountain-stream that ends in mud thinks is melancholy. - (Lowell, James Russell - Ancestry)

The misfortunes hardest to bear are these which never came. - (Lowell, James Russell - Anxiety)

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 - Argument)

Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. - (Lowell, James Russell - Books - Reading)

What a sense of security in an old book which time has criticized for us. - (Lowell, James Russell - Books - Reading)

They are slaves who fear to speak, for the fallen and the weak. - (Lowell, James Russell - Character)

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. - (Lowell, James Russell - Character)

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. - (Lowell, James Russell - Common Sense)

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. - (Lowell, James Russell - Compromise)

Not failure, but low aim, is crime. - (Lowell, James Russell - Crime and Criminals)

A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic. - (Lowell, James Russell - Critics and Criticism)

A sneer is the weapon of the weak. - (Lowell, James Russell - Critics and Criticism)