Frases de James Russell Lowell

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“En general, quienes no tienen nada que decir invierten el mayor tiempo posible en no decir nada.”

“Los humanos no saben lo que poseen en la Tierra. Será porque la mayoría no ha tenido ocasión de abandonarla y regresar después a ella.”

“Una espina de experiencia vale más que un bosque de advertencias.”

“Bienaventurados los que no tienen nada que decir, y que resisten la tentación de decirlo.”

“¡Cuánta confianza nos inspira un libro viejo del cual el tiempo nos ha hecho ya la crítica!”

“La democracia otorga a cada uno de los hombres el derecho a ser el opresor de sí mismo.”

“Las desgracias más temidas son, de ordinario, las que no llegan jamás.”

“Si la juventud es un defecto, es un defecto del que nos curamos demasiado pronto.”

“We kind o' thought Christ went agin war an' pillage.”

“It ain't by princerples nor men
My preudunt course is steadied—
I scent wich pays the best, an' then
Go into it baldheaded.”

“If there are men who regret the Good Old Times, without too clear a notion of what they were, they should at least be thankful that we are rid of that misguided energy of faith which justifies conscience in making men unrelentingly cruel.”

“Their problem was how to adapt English principles and precedents to the new conditions of American life, and they solved it with singular discretion. They put as many obstacles as they could contrive, not in the way of the people's will, but of their whim.”

“The very room, coz she was in,
Seemed warm from floor to ceilin”

“Tain’t by turnin’ out to hack folks
You’re agoin’ to git your right,
Nor by lookin’ down on black folks
Coz you’re put upon by white;
Slavery ain’t o’ nary color,
’Tain’t the hide thet makes it wus,
All it keers fer in a feller
’S jest to make him fill its pus.”

“Our papers don't purtend to print on'y wut Guv'ment choose,
An' thet insures us all to git the very best o' noose.”

“I first drew in New England's air, and from her hardy breast
Sucked in the tyrant-hating milk that will not let me rest.”

“Toward no crimes have men shown themselves so cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences in belief.”

“Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed. She is said to lie at the bottom of a well, for the very reason, perhaps, that whoever looks down in search of her sees his own image at the bottom, and is persuaded not only that he has seen the goddess, but that she is far better looking than he had imagined.”

“The wisest man could ask no more of Fate
Than to be simple, modest, manly, true,
Safe from the Many — honored by the Few;
To count as naught in World or Church or State;
But inwardly in secret to be great.”

“Our slender life runs rippling by, and glides
Into the silent hollow of the past;
What is there that abides
To make the next age better for the last?”

“Wut's words to them whose faith an' truth
On war's red techstone rang true metal;
Who ventered life an' love an' youth
For the gret prize o' death in battle?”

“The surest plan to make a Man
Is, think him so.”

“The Maple puts her corals on in May,
While loitering frosts about the lowlands cling,
To be in tune with what the robins sing.”

“Here was a type of the true elder race,
And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face.”

“Simple as it seems, it was a great discovery that the key of knowledge could turn both ways, that it could open, as well as lock, the door of power to the many.”

“The soil out of which such men as he are made is good to be born on, good to live on, good to die for and to be buried in.”

“Truly there is a tide in the affairs of men; but there is no gulf-stream setting forever in one direction.”

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

“Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.”

“Laborin' man an' laborin' woman
Hev one glory an' one shame;
Ev'y thin' thet's done inhuman
Injers all on 'em the same.”

“Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is.”

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

“How little inventiveness there is in man,
Grave copier of copies, I give thanks
For a new relish, careless to inquire
My pleasure's pedigree, if so it please,
Nobly, I mean, nor renegade to art.
The Grecian gluts me with its perfectness,
Unanswerable as Euclid, self-contained,
The one thing finished in this hasty world,
Forever finished, though the barbarous pit,
Fanatical on hearsay, stamp and shout
As if a miracle could be encored.”

“Both of them mean that Labor has no rights which Capital is bound to respect,—that there is no higher law than human interest and cupidity.”

“He stood a spell on one foot fust
Then stood a spell on t' other,
An' on which one he felt the wust
He could n't ha' told ye nuther.”

“An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.”

“Ez fer war, I call it murder—
There you hev it plain an' flat;
I don't want to go no furder
Than my Testyment fer that.”