James Russell Lowell Quotes

He that serves God for Money, will serve the Devil for better Wages.

I know that man who forsakes Truth can forsake his country and his nearest and dearest ones.

The only reason I don't want to commit adultery is because I love my wife and I love my lord.

Truth made you a traitor as it often does in a time of scoundrels.

Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

Faith is not to be kept with him who keeps not faith with God

… he must deceive, misrepresent, leave false impressions … and trust to charm, loyalty and the result to make up for it…. A great man cannot be a good man.

I love the treason but hate the traitor.

Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.

... Treachery don't come natural to beaming youth; but trust and pity, love and constancy,-they do, thank God!

If we pursue this way, if we are decent, industrious, and honest, if we so loyally and truly fulfill our duty, then it is my conviction that in the future as in the past the Lord God will always help us. In the long run He never leaves decent folk in the lurch. Often He may test them, He may send trials upon them, but in the long run He always lets His sun shine upon them once more and at the end He gives them His blessing.

How is it possible for those who are men of honor in their persons, thus to become notorious liars in their party

He who purposely cheats his friend would cheat his God.

Though I never scruple a lie to serve my Master, it hurts one's conscience to be found out!

I like to think of myself as a reasonable man. But I have buried too many friends in the too-recent past, and I have seen too many lies go unquestioned, and too many questions go unasked. There is a time when even reasonable men must begin to take unreasonable actions. To do anything else is to be less than human.

Remembering that Peter denied his Lord with an oath, after most solemnly protesting that he never would, I will not swear I will make no committals; but I do think I will not.

Betrayals during war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace.

It's not so much staying alive, it's staying human that's important. What counts is that we don't betray each other.

When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: Yet Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.

The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical. . . . Any man who for one moment abandons or suspends the questioning spirit has for that moment betrayed humanity.

No man can mortgage his injustice as a pawn for his fidelity.

If we break promises to God, shouldn't we be allowed an occasional violation of our word to our friends and superiors?

Poor heretics there be,Which think to establish dangerous constancy,But I have told them, ‘Since you will be true,You shall be true to them, who are false to you.

Who keeps on loving you when you've been lying, saying things that ain't what they seem? God does, but I don't. God will, but I won't.