I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
James Russell LowellRead
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Books facilitate the sharing of ideas and knowledge between minds.
James Russell Lowell's quote highlights the significant role that books play in transmitting knowledge and stimulating intellectual growth. Just as bees pollinate flowers, enabling them to flourish, books nurture and expand our thoughts by delivering ideas from one person to another, creating a rich ecosystem of shared understanding and creativity.
Themes
BooksKnowledgeIdeasEducationIntellect
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of literacy, you might quote this to emphasize the value of books.
More from James Russell Lowell
All quotes βThe foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
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Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
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Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.
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Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
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Old events have modern meanings; only that survives of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.
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No country can possibly move ahead, no free society can possibly be sustained, unless it has an educated citizenry whose qualities of mind and heart permit it to take part in the complicated and increasingly sophisticated decisions that pour not only upon the President and upon the Congress, but upon all the citizens who exercise the ultimate power.
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Whoever has skill in music is of good temperament and fitted for all things. We must teach music in schools.
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Mathematics consists in proving the most obvious thing in the least obvious way.
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Children love this idea that their brain is like a muscle that gets stronger as they use it.
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Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt, they can't afford the time to think.
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