I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
James Russell LowellRead
The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions.
Interpretation
Only the foolish and the dead refuse to change their views or opinions.
This quote suggests that change is an inherent part of life and intellectual growth. Those who are alive and wise are open to learning and shifting their perspectives, while only those who are foolish or no longer alive remain unyielding in their beliefs.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of adaptability in business.
I have always been of the mind that in a democracy manners are the only effective weapons against the bowie-knife.
Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
Good luck is the willing handmaid of upright, energetic character, and conscientious observance of duty.
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
Old events have modern meanings; only that survives of past history which finds kindred in all hearts and lives.
Retirement requires the invention of a new hedonism, not a return to the hedonism of youth
I see many more men who are feminist, or at least who have learned about life in the context of feminism.
I think what I'd really like to see would be a mass consciousness-raising movement so that we would all become vegetarian.
I just got so fed up with the bad vibes. I didn't care if it was the Beatles; I was getting out.
My moms always told me, 'How long you gonna play the victim?' I can say I'm mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.
It's easy to get rid of things when there is an obvious reason for doing so. It's much more difficult when there is no compelling reason.
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