James Russell Lowell

"Imagination, where it is truly creative, is a faculty, and not a quality; it looks before and after, it gives the form that makes all the parts work together harmoniously toward a given end, its seat is in the higher reason, and it is efficient only as a servant of the will. Imagination, as it is too often misunderstood, is mere fantasy, the image-making power, common to all who have the gift of dreams."

3 likes

Source: James Russell Lowell (1888). “The English Poets Lessing: Rousseau”

About the author

James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell

Poet, Essayist

James Russell Lowell was an American poet and essayist known for his advocacy of social reform and his influential work, 'The Biglow Papers.'

All quotes by James Russell Lowell →

Same author

More quotes by James Russell Lowell

See all →
James Russell Lowell Poet, Essayist

"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!"

Read quote