Skip to content

Quotes from The Biglow Papers — James Russell Lowell

1819–1891 United States

← All quotes by James Russell Lowell

45 quotes

God makes sech nights, all white an' still,
Fur'z you can look or listen,
Moonshine an' snow on field an' hill,
All silence an' all glisten.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Like streams that keep a summer mind
Snow-hid in Jenooary.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

You've gut to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

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

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Under the yaller pines I house,
When sunshine makes 'em all sweet-scented,
An' hear among their furry boughs
The baskin' west-wind purr contented.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Stern men with empires in their brains.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

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 Biglow Papers (1848)

A marciful Providunce fashioned us holler
O' purpose thet we might our principles swaller.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

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.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

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.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

To say why gals acts so or so,
Or don't, 'ould be persumin';
Mebby to mean yes an' say no
Comes nateral to women.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

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

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Zekle crep' up quite unbeknown
An' peeked in thru' the winder,
An there sot Huldy all alone,
'ith no one nigh to hender.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Bad work follers ye ez long's ye live.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

I du believe with all my soul
In the gret Press's freedom,
To pint the people to the goal
An' in the traces lead 'em.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Of my merit
On thet pint you yourself may jedge;
All is, I never drink no sperit,
Nor I haint never signed no pledge.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

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

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Ef you take a sword an’ dror it,
An’ go stick a feller thru,
Guv’mint ain’t to answer for it,
God’ll send the bill to you.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

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.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Gineral C. is a dreffle smart man;
He’s ben on all sides thet give places or pelf;
But consistency still wuz a part of his plan,—
He’s ben true to one party, an’ thet is himself.

The Biglow Papers (1848)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: James Russell Lowell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.