James Russell Lowell Art Quotations

Tis easy now for the heart to be true As for grass to be green or skies to be blue-- 'Tis the natural way of living.

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it; We are happy now because God wills it.

Earth's biggest country 's gut her soul, An' risen up earth's greatest nation.

His heart kep' goin' pity-pat, But hern went pity-Zekle.

Better to me the poor mans crust, Better the blessing of the poor, Though I turn me empty from his door; That is no true alms which the hand can hold; He gives nothing but worthless gold Who gives from a sense of duty; But he who gives a slender mite, And gives to that which is out of sight, That thread of the all-sustaining Beauty Which runs through all and doth all unite, - The hand cannot clasp the whole of his alms, The heart outstretches its eager palms, For a god goes with it and makes it store To the soul that was starving in darkness before.

To win the secret of a weed's plain heart.

One day with life and heart Is more than time enough to find a world.

Not as all other women are Is she that to my soul is dear; Her glorious fancies come from far, Beneath the silver evening star, And yet her heart is ever near.

Who's not sat tense before his own heart's curtain.

There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind, no word of genius to which the human heart and soul have not sooner or later responded.

True freedom is to share All the chains our brothers wear, And, with heart and hand, to be Earnest to make others free!

Who speaks the truth stabs falsehood to the heart.

Old events have modern meanings; only that survives of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.

But civlyzation doos git forrid Sometimes upon a powder-cart.

Not but wut abstract war is horrid, I sign to thet with all my heart, But civilysation doos git forrid Sometimes, upon a powder-cart.

A nature wise With finding in itself the types of all, With watching from the dim verge of the time What things to be are visible in the gleams Thrown forward on them from the luminous past, Wise with the history of its own frail heart, With reverence and sorrow, and with love, Broad as the world, for freedom and for man.

All that hath been majestical In life or death, since time began, Is native in the simple heart of all, The angel heat of man.

Not suffering, but faint heart, is worst of woes.

Get but the truth once uttered, and 'tis like A star new-born that drops into its place And which, once circling in its placid round, Not all the tumult of the earth can shake.

Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us.

A stray hair, by its continued irritation, may give more annoyance than a smart blow.

Making one object, in outward or inward nature, more holy to a single heart is reward enough for a life; for the more sympathies we gain or awaken for what is beautiful, by so much deeper will be our sympathy for that which is most beautiful,--the human soul!

Fashion being the art of those who must purchase notice at some cheaper rate than that of being beautiful, loves to do rash and extravagant things. She must be forever new, or she becomes insipid.

The very gnarliest and hardest of hearts has some musical strings in it; but they are tuned differently in every one of us.

Now on the hills I hear the thunder mutter... Nearer and nearer rolls the thunder-clap,— You can hear the quick heart of the tempest beat.... Look! look! that livid flash! And instantly follows the rattling thunder, As if some cloud-crag, split asunder, Fell, splintering with a ruinous crash, On the Earth, which crouches in silence under; And now a solid gray wall of rain Shuts off the landscape, mile by mile...

In the storm, like a prophet o’ermaddened, Thou singest and tossest thy branches; Thy heart with the terror is gladdened, Thou forebodest the dread avalanches.... In the calm thou o’erstretchest the valleys With thine arms, as if blessings imploring, Like an old king led forth from his palace, When his people to battle are pouring...

Now the heart is so full that a drop overfills it, We are happy now because God so wills it; No matter how barren the past may have been, ’T is enough for us now that the leaves are green; We sit in the warm shade and feel right well How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell... The breeze comes whispering in our ear, That dandelions are blossoming near... Every thing is upward striving; ’T is as easy now for the heart to be true As for grass to be green or skies to be blue, — ’T is the natural way of living...

Over our manhood bend the skies; Against our fallen and traitor lives The great winds utter prophecies; With our faint hearts the mountain strives, Its arms outstretched, the druid wood Waits with its benedicite And to our age’s drowsy blood Still shouts the inspiring sea.

Whom the heart of man shuts out, Sometimes the heart of God takes in, And fences them all round about With silence mid the worlds loud din.

Who knows whither the clouds have fled? In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake; And the eyes forget the tears they have shed, The heart forgets its sorrow and ache.

It is only the intellect that can be thoroughly and hideously wicked. It can forget everything in the attainment of its ends. The heart recoils; in its retired some drops of childhood's dew still linger, defying manhood's fiery noon.

God does not weigh criminality in our scales. We have one absolute, with the seal of authority upon it; and with us an ounce is an ounce, and a pound a pound. God's measure is the heart of the offender,--a balance which varies with every one of us, a balance so delicate that a tear cast in the other side may make the weight of error kick the beam.

Earth's noblest thing,-a woman perfected.

A woman's love Is mighty, but a mother's heart is weak, And by its weakness overcomes.

The heart forgets its sorrow and ache.

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.

Endurance is the crowning quality, And patience all the passion of great hearts.

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

The brain can be easy to buy, but the heart never comes to market.