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Nature, They Say, Doth Dote, And Cannot Make A Man Save On Some Worn-out Plan, Repeating Us By Rote.
-James Russell Lowell
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Nature, They Say, Doth

James Russell Lowell
...
Nature, They Say, Doth Dote, And Cannot Make A Man Save On Some Worn-out Plan, Repeating Us By Rote.

Understanding the Quote: "nature, they say, doth dote, and cannot make a man save on..."

This quote by James Russell Lowell reflects deeply on the theme of nature. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Nature, Men, Worn, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how James Russell Lowell interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About James Russell Lowell

James Russell Lowell is celebrated for insightful thoughts on nature and men. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Nature
Men
Worn
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Summer
June
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Humility
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Dignity
A Wise Skepticism Is The First Attribute Of A Good Critic.
Wise
Wisdom
Criticism
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Faith
Color
Weather
The Secret Of Force In Writing Lies Not So Much In The Pedigree Of Nouns And Adjectives And Verbs, As In Having Something That You Believe In To Say, And Making The Parts Of Speech Vividly Conscious Of It.
Lying
Believe
Writing
A Ginooine Statesman Should Be On His Guard, If He Must Hev Beliefs, Not To B'lieve 'em Too Hard.
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Belief
Politician
The Pine Is The Mother Of Legends.
Mother
Legends
Fate Loves The Fearless.
Fate
Thinking
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Many Make The Household But Only One The Home.
Home
Household
Not Only Around Our Infancy Doth Heaven With All Its Splendors Lie; Daily, With Souls That Cringe And Plot, We Sinais Climb And Know It Not.
Lying
Heaven
Soul
But Better Far It Is To Speak One Simple Word, Which Now And Then Shall Waken Their Free Nature In The Weak And Friendless Sons Of Men.
Sympathy
Son
Simple
Life Seems A Jest Of Fate's Contriving.
Life
Fate
Conniving
Life Is Constantly Weighing Us In Very Sensitive Scales, And Telling Every One Of Us Precisely What His Real Weight Is To The Last Grain Of Dust.
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Real
Dust
Not What We Give, But What We Share, For The Gift Without The Giver Is Bare.
Friendship
Thank You
Giving
Darkness Is Strong, And So Is Sin, But Surely God Endures Forever!
God
Strong
Dark
Life May Be Given In Many Ways, And Loyalty To Truth Be Sealed As Bravely In The Closet As The Field.
Loyalty
Bravery
May
Tyranny Is Always Weakness
Weakness
Tyranny
For Men In Earnest Have No Time To Waste In Patching Fig-leaves For The Naked Truth.
Truth
Men
Naked
I Don't Believe In Princerple, But Oh I Du In Interest.
Believe
Belief
Interest
Truth Forever On The Scaffold, Wrong Forever On The Throne,- Yet That Scaffold Sways The Future, And, Behind The Dim Unknown, Standeth God Within The Shadow, Keeping Watch Above His Own.
Truth
Forever
Shadow
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Truth
Taste
Tongue
There Is A Law Of Neutralization Of Forces, Which Hinders Bodies From Sinking Beyond A Certain Depth In The Sea; But In The Ocean Of Baseness, The Deeper We Get, The Easier The Sinking.
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Sea
Law
He's True To God Who's True To Man.
Men
The Course Of A Great Statesman Resembles That Of Navigable Rivers, Avoiding Immovable Obstacles With Noble Bends Of Concession, Seeking The Broad Levels Of Opinion On Which Men Soonest Settle And Longest Dwell, Following And Marking The Almost Imperceptible Slopes Of National Tendency, Yet Always Aiming At Direct Advances, Always Recruited From Sources Nearer Heaven, And Sometimes Bursting Open Paths Of Progress And Fruitful Human Commerce Through What Seem The Eternal Barriers Of Both.
Men
Rivers
Heaven
Fanaticism, Or, To Call It By Its Milder Name, Enthusiasm, Is Only Powerful And Active So Long As It Is Aggressive. Establish It Firmly In Power, And It Becomes Conservatism, Whether It Will Or No.
Powerful
Names
Long
It Is The Vain Endeavor To Make Ourselves What We Are Not That Has Strewn History With So Many Broken Purposes And Lives Left In The Rough.
Broken
Purpose
Vain
All Free Governments, Whatever Their Name, Are In Reality Governments By Public Opinion ; And It Is On The Quality Of This Public Opinion That Their Prosperity Depends. It Is, Therefore, Their First Duty To Purify The Element From Which They Draw The Breath Of Life.
Reality
Government
Names
Better To Me The Poor Mans Crust, Better The Blessing Of The Poor, Though I Turn Me Empty From His Door; That Is No True Alms Which The Hand Can Hold; He Gives Nothing But Worthless Gold Who Gives From A Sense Of Duty; But He Who Gives A Slender Mite, And Gives To That Which Is Out Of Sight, That Thread Of The All-sustaining Beauty Which Runs Through All And Doth All Unite, - The Hand Cannot Clasp The Whole Of His Alms, The Heart Outstretches Its Eager Palms, For A God Goes With It And Makes It Store To The Soul That Was Starving In Darkness Before.
Running
Heart
Blessing
The Thing We Long For, That We Are For One Transcendent Moment.
Long
Desire
Moments
Earth Gets Its Price For What Earth Gives Us.
Giving
Earth
Dross
Scepticism Commonly Takes Up The Room Left By Defect Of Imagination, And Is The Very Quality Of Mind Most Likely To Seek For Sensual Proof Of Supersensual Things. If One Came From The Dead It Could Not Believe; And Yet It Longs For Such A Witness, And Will Put Up With A Very Dubious One.
Believe
Imagination
Sensual
Here Come The Hum The Golden Bees Underneath Full Blossomed Trees, At Once With Glowing Fruit And Flowers Crowned.
Flower
Glowing
Tree
No Man, I Suspect, Ever Lived Long In The Country Without Being Bitten By These Meteorological Ambitions. He Likes To Be Hotter And Colder, To Have Been More Deeply Snowed Up, To Have More Trees And Larger Blown Down Than His Neighbors.
Country
Ambition
Men
Pride Of Origin, Whether High Or Low, Springs From The Same Principle In Human Nature; One Is But The Positive, The Other The Negative, Pole Of A Single Weakness.
Spring
Pride
Weakness
Get But The Truth Once Uttered, And 'tis Like A Star New-born That Drops Into Its Place And Which, Once Circling In Its Placid Round, Not All The Tumult Of The Earth Can Shake.
Stars
Truth
Earth
He Gives Only The Worthless Gold Who Gives From A Sense Of Duty.
Giving
Gold
Duty
The Heart Forgets Its Sorrow And Ache.
Love
Broken Heart
Sorrow
Here Was A Type Of The True Elder Race, And One Of Plutarch's Men Talked With Us Face To Face.
Men
Race
Elderly
The Victory's In Believing.
Believe
Victory
Belief
Over All Life Broods Poesy, Like The Calm Blue Sky With Its Motherly, Rebuking Face. She Is The Great Reformer, And Where The Love Of Her Is Strong And Healthy, Wickedness And Wrong Cannot Long Prevail.
Strong
Blue
Sky
The Rich Man's Sons Inherits Cares; The Bank May Break, The Factory Burn, A Breath May Burst His Bubble Shares, And Soft, White Hands Could Hardly Earn A Living That Would Serve His Turn.
Son
Men
White
No Sincere Desire Of Doing Good Need Make An Enemy Of A Single Human Being; That Philanthropy Has Surely A Flaw In It Which Cannot Sympathize With The Oppressor Equally As With The Oppressed.
Enemy
Desire
Needs
A Great Man Is Made Up Of Qualities That Meet Or Make Great Occasions.
Greatness
Destiny
Men
Men Have Their Intellectual Ancestry, And The Likeness Of Some One Of Them Is Forever Unexpectedly Flashing Out In The Features Of A Descendant, It May Be After A Gap Of Several Centuries. In The Parliament Of The Present Every Man Represents A Constituency Of The Past.
Past
Men
Forever
Such Power There Is In Clear-eyed Self-restraint.
Power
Self
Restraint
I Don't Believe In Principle, But I Do In Interest.
Believe
Curiosity
Principles
Tiny Salmoneus Of The Air His Mimic Bolts The Firefly Threw.
Firefly
Air
Tiny
There Is Nothing So Desperately Monotonous As The Sea, And I No Longer Wonder At The Cruelty Of Pirates.
Ocean
Sea
Pirate
The Material Of Thought Re-acts Upon The Thought Itself.
Materials
Practical Application Is The Only Mordant Which Will Set Things In The Memory. Study Without It Is Gymnastics, And Not Work, Which Alone Will Get Intellectual Bread.
Memories
Gymnastics
Intellectual
A Man Is Old When He Can Pass An Apple Orchard And Not Remember The Stomachache.
Birthday
Men
Apples
It Is Curious How Tyrannical The Habit Of Reading Is...
Reason
Habit
Curious
Where Church And State Are Habitually Associated, It Is Natural That Minds, Even Of A High Order, Should Unconsciously Come To Regard Religion As Only A Subtler Mode Of Police.
Order
Police
Mind
Though Old The Thought And Oft Exprest, Tis His At Last Who Says It Best.
Writing
Lasts
Poetry Is Something To Make Us Wiser And Better, By Continually Revealing Those Types Of Beauty And Truth, Which God Has Set In All Men's Souls.
Beauty
Men
Soul
Men's Thoughts And Opinions Are In A Great Degree Vassals Of Him Who Invents A New Phrase Or Re-applies An Old Epithet. The Thought Or Feeling A Thousand Times Repeated Becomes His At Last Who Utters It Best.
Men
Feelings
Degrees
The Path Of Nature Is, Indeed, A Narrow One, And It Is Only The Immortals That Seek It, And, When They Find It, Do Not Find Themselves Cramped Therein.
Nature
Path
Truth Only Needs To Be For Once Spoken Out; And There's Such Music In Her, Such Strange Rhythm, As Makes Men's Memories Her Joyous Slaves.
Truth
Memories
Men
Granting Our Wish Is One Of Fate's Saddest Jokes.
Success
Fate
Wish
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