J.W. Lord Quotes

Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.

It is very easy to speak words of wisdom from a comfortable distance, when one sees no reality, no details, none of the effect on men's minds.

Before men can find peace and harmony within themselves they must first fall in love with their country.

History is the arbiter of controversy, the monarch of all she surveys.

The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion.

Advice to Persons About to Write History - Don't.

Fanaticism displays itself in the masses; but the masses were rarely fanaticised; and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.

Government by idea tends to take in everything, to make the whole of society obedient to the idea. Spaces not so governed are unconquered, beyond the border, unconverted, a future danger.

Every error pronounces judgment on itself when it attempts to apply its rules to the standard of truth.

It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.

The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.

The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.

Towns were the nursery of freedom.

A history that should pursue all the subtle threads from end to end might be eminently valuable, but not as a tribute to peace and conciliation.

Since Eve ate the apple, much depends on dinner.

What a strange thing is man! And what a stranger is woman.

There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away.

It is when we think we lead that we are most led.

A woman who gives any advantage to a man may expect a lover - but will sooner or later find a tyrant.

Why do they call me misanthrope? Because They hate me, not I them.

I have not loved the world, nor the world me.

I came to realize clearly that the mind is no other than the Mountain and the Rivers and the great wide Earth, the Sun and the Moon and the Sky”.

What is Death, so it be but glorious? 'Tis a sunset; And mortals may be happy to resemble The Gods but in decay.

I cannot describe to you the despairing sensation of trying to do something for a man who seems incapable or unwilling to do anything further for himself.

Had sigh'd to many, though he loved but one.

Grief should be the instructor of the wise; Sorrow is Knowledge.

I am so changeable, being everything by turns and nothing long - such a strange melange of good and evil.

What exile from himself can flee? To zones, though more and more remote, Still, still pursues, where'er I be, The blight of life--the demon Thought.

'Tis solitude should teach us how to die; It hath no flatterers; vanity can give, No hollow aid; alone - man with God must strive.

There are some feelings time cannot benumb, Nor torture shake.

Talent may be in time forgiven, but genius never

Of all the horrid, hideous notes of woe, Sadder than owl-songs or the midnight blast; Is that portentous phrase, "I told you so.

I do detest everything which is not perfectly mutual.

Then farewell, Horace; whom I hated so, Not for thy faults, but mine.

Never to talk to ones self is a form of hypocrisy

But I hate things all fiction... there should always be some foundation of fact for the most airy fabric - and pure invention is but the talent of a liar.

Twas twilight, and the sunless day went down Over the waste of waters; like a veil, Which, if withdrawn, would but disclose the frown Of one whose hate is mask'd but to assail.

But 'midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess, And roam along, the world's tired denizen, With none who bless us, none whom we can bless.

And Doubt and Discord step 'twixt thine and thee.

I am never long, even in the society of her I love, without yearning for the company of my lamp and my library.

That famish'd people must be slowly nurst, and fed by spoonfuls, else they always burst.

In commitment, we dash the hopes of a thousand potential selves.

Go let thy less than woman's hand Assume the distaff not the brand.

So bright the tear in Beauty's eye, Love half regrets to kiss it dry.

I really cannot know whether I am or am not the Genius you are pleased to call me, but I am very willing to put up with the mistake, if it be one.

Frienship is eros...without wings

Curiosity kills itself; and love is only curiosity, as is proved by its end.

History - the devil's scripture

Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart.

The poetry of speech.