"Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind."
"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."
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Source: James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books: First [-second] series”, p.3
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"Fate loves the fearless."
"The devil loves nothing better than the intolerance of reformers."
"What visionary tints the year puts on, When falling leaves falter through motionless air Or numbly cling and shiver to be gone! How shimmer the low flats and pastures bare, As with her nectar Hebe Autumn fills The bowl between me and those distant hills, And smiles and shakes abroad her misty, tremulous hair!"
"All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action."
"One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning."