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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.

— James Russell Lowell On Democracy (1884)

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More quotes by James Russell Lowell

Who speaks the truth stabs Falsehood to the heart.

Poems (1844)

It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.

Abraham Lincoln (1864)

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

Poems: Second Series (1848)

What a sense of security in an old book which Time has criticised for us!

My Study Windows (1871)

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

Poems: Second Series (1848)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Russell Lowell (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.