James Russell Lowell Quotes

By oneself the evil is done, and it is oneself who suffers: by oneself the evil is not done, and by one's Self one becomes pure.

I can't judge the way other people behave. I can only look at myself.

This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people.

May we be as severe with ourselves over our own subtle sins as we are with the vile sins we condemn in others

If thou wouldst be implacable, be so with thyself.

Each day look into your conscience and amend your faults; if you fail in this duty you will be untrue to the Knowledge and Reason that are within you. Keep a watchful eye over yourself as if you were your own enemy; for you cannot learn to govern yourself, unless you first learn to govern your own passions and obey the dictates of your conscience.

I try to be a good person. I know what my downfalls are, so that's a good thing.

I take responsibility for myself and what I do now.

So then, when I speak to you, I speak to myself. If I seem to warn or to rebuke you, it is not so much you, as myself, to whom the warning or the rebuke is addressed.

You have to take responsibility for how you act. You can't fix everyone.

All honor's wounds are self-inflicted.

It is better to destroy one's own errors than those of others.

Find fault with thyself rather than with others.

Preach in your own house and to your own company

I'm highly critical of myself. There's not something someone else might say that makes me feel I need to be motivated in a different way. I'm a self-motivated guy.

I'm not saying I'm perfect. But I'm someone who analyses and reflects on what I do, whether it's in keeping with the ethics that I talk about in public. That's how I've been all my life.

I write, "Give me reason but don't give me choice, because I'll make the same mistake again." I think that's what most men want to be told.

Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed - but hate these things in yourself, not in another.

Let no man give advice to others that he has not first given himself.

Pay no attention to the faults of others, things done or left undone by others. Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone.

Before thou reprehend another, take heed thou art not culpable in what thou goest about to reprehend. He that cleanses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blur.

Why will no man confess his faults? Because he continues to indulge in them; a man cannot tell his dream till he wakes.

Blame neither man, nor God, nor anyone in the world. When you find yourselves suffering, blame yourselves, and try to do better.

He who pays no attention to what his neighbor does, says or thinks, preferring to concentrate on making his own actions appropriate and justifiable, better uses his time.

We can't go out and tell ourselves we've done good if we haven't.