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About this quote

What does it mean?
Lowell attributes his rebellious spirit against authority to the specific influence of his upbringing in New England.
In plain terms
He credits New England for teaching him to hate tyrants.
What can you take from it?
Environment shapes political spirit.

Where it applies

  • personal history
  • political identity
  • regional pride

Putting it to work

  • trace your values
  • examine your upbringing

Questions to consider

  • Where do your values come from?
  • How does place shape belief?

Another view

It is a subjective, regional claim that may not apply broadly.

More from James Russell Lowell

  1. The nurse of full-grown souls is solitude.

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  2. Before man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.

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  3. They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink F…

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