All Quotes by William Cowper
“Not a flowerOf his unrivall'd pencil.”
“But many a crime deem'd innocent on earthBut God will never.”
“I would not enter on my list of friends,Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.”
“Forced from home and all its pleasuresMinds are never to be sold.”
“Fleecy locks and black complexionDwells in white and black the same.”
“Deem our nation brutes no longer,Than the colour of our kind.”
“Prove that you have human feelings,Ere you proudly question ours!”
“Survivor sole, and hardly such, of allthat once lived here”
“It seems idolatry with some excuse,Imagined sanctity.”
“Thou wast a bauble once; a cup and ball,But fate thy growth decreed.”
“So Fancy dreams. Disprove it, if ye can,Sifts half the pleasures of short life away!”
“Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,—A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.”
“The sounding jargon of the schools.”
“When one that holds communion with the skies'T is e'en as if an angel shook his wings.”
“A kick that scarce would move a horseMay kill a sound divine.”
“But the sound of the church-going bellOr smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.”
“How fleet is a glance of the mind!And the swift-winged arrows of light.”
“There goes the parson, O illustrious spark!And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.”
“And the tear that is wiped with a little address,May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.”
“'T is Providence alone securesIn every change both mine and yours.”
“God moves in mysterious ways”
“I shall not ask Jean Jacques RousseauIf birds confabulate or no.”
“The path of sorrow, and that path alone,Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.”
“Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass'dWith me but roughly since I heard thee last.”
“The son of parents pass'd into the skies.”
“The man that hails you Tom or Jack,To pardon or to bear it.”
“A worm is in the bud of youth,And at the root of age.”
“There is a bird who by his coat,Might be supposed a crow.”
“He sees that this great roundaboutAnd says—what says he?—Caw.”
“For 't is a truth well known to most,In every cranny but the right.”
“He that holds fast the golden mean, 22Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door.”
“But strive still to be a man before your mother.”
“Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.”
“How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.”
“Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.”
“Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.”
“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.”
“Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair.”
“But oars alone can ne'er prevail Or all the toil is lost.”
“Reasoning at every step he treads, Are rarely known to stray.”
“Fate steals along with silent tread, But in the sunshine strikes the blow.”
“True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd.”
“Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade, And Heaven reflected in her face.”
“Candid, and generous, and just,Is most to be suspected?”
“Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own.”
“I believe no man was ever scolded out of his sins.”
“An honest man, close-buttoned to the chin,Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.”
“Shine by the side of every path we treadWith such a luster, he that runs may read.”
“Toll for the brave —Fast by their native shore!”
“And still to love, though prest with ill,My Mary!”
“I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.”
“As when around the clear bright moon, the starsAll glitters, and the shepherd's heart is cheer'd.”
“My soulI have learned patience, having much endured.”
“Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.”
“Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day(Live till tomorrow) will have passed away.”
“Misses! the tale that I relateBut proper time to marry.”
“Misery still delights to traceIts semblance in another's case.”
“No voice divine the storm allay'd,And whelmed in deeper gulphs than he.”
“A knave, when tried on honesty's plain rule,And, when by that of reason, a mere fool”
“Oh! for a closer walk with God,That leads me to the Lamb!”
“What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!The world can never fill.”
“And Satan trembles when he seesThe weakest saint upon his knees.”
“God moves in a mysterious way, And rides upon the storm.”
“Behind a frowning providenceHe hides a smiling face.”
“Deep in unfathomable mines And works his sovereign will.”
“His purposes will ripen fast, But sweet will be the flower.”
“Blind unbelief is sure to err, And he will make it plain.”
“There is a fountain fill'd with bloodLose all their guilty stains.”
“I play with syllables and sport in song”
“Glory, builtOn selfish principles, is shame and guilt.”
“Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.”
“As if the world and they were hand and glove.”
“Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows,Less on exterior things than most suppose.”
“Freedom has a thousand charms to show,That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.”
“Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.”
“Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd,To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.”
“Elegant as simplicity, and warmAs ecstasy.”
“Low ambition and the thirst of praise.”
“Made poetry a mere mechanic art.”
“Nature, exerting an unwearied power,The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads.”
“Lights of the world, and stars of human race.”
“Remorse, the fatal egg by Pleasure laid.”
“How much a dunce that has been sent to roamExcels a dunce that has been kept at home!”
“No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest,Till half mankind were like himself possess'd.”
“Tis hard if all is false that I advance,A fool must now and then be right by chance.”
“He would not, with a peremptory tone,Assert the nose upon his face his own.”
“A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can.”
“Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,The sex whose presence civilizes ours.”
“I cannot talk with civet in the room,A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume.”
“The solemn fop; significant and budge;A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.”
“His wit invites you by his looks to come,But when you knock it never is at home.”
“I pity bashful men, who feel the painOf needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.”
“Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.”
“That good diffused may more abundant grow.”
“But that disease when soberly definedIs the false fire of an o'erheated mind.”
“But Conversation, choose what theme we may,Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers.”
“A business with an income at its heelsFurnishes always oil for its own wheels.”
“Absence of occupation is not rest,A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.”
“An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless when it goes as when it stands.”
“Built God a church, and laugh'd his word to scorn.”
“Philologists, who chaseTo Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.”
“I praise the Frenchman [Voltaire], his remark was shrewd —Whom I may whisper — solitude is sweet.”
“I am monarch of all I survey, I am lord of the fowl and the brute.”
“O solitude! where are the charms Than reign in this horrible place.”
“I am out of humanity's reach. I start at the sound of my own.”
“Society friendship and love How soon I would taste you again!”
“Religion! what treasure untoldResides in that heavenly word!”
“My friends, do they now and then send Though a friend I am never to see.”
“There is mercy in every place, And reconciles man to his lot.”
“Though on pleasure she was bent,She had a frugal mind.”
“The dogs did bark, the children screamed,As loud as he could bawl.”
“A hat not much the worse for wear.”
“Now let us sing — Long live the king,May I be there to see!”
“United yet divided, twain at once:So sit two kings of Brentford on one throne.”
“Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds,The tone of languid nature.”
“The earth was made so various, that the mindAnd pleased with novelty, might be indulged.”
“God made the country, and man made the town.”
“Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,Might never reach me more.”
“Mountains interposedLike kindred drops, been mingled into one.”
“I would not have a slave to till my ground,That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.”
“Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungsThey touch our country, and their shackles fall.”
“Fast-anchor'd isle.”
“England, with all thy faults, I love thee still—Shall be constrained to love thee.”
“Presume to lay their hand upon the arkOf her magnificent and awful cause.”
“Praise enoughThat Chatham's language was his mother tongue.”
“There is a pleasure in poetic painsWhich only poets know.”
“Transforms old printOf gallery critics by a thousand arts.”
“Reading what they never wrote,And with a well-bred whisper close the scene.”
“Whoe'er was edified, themselves were not.”
“Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.”
“O Popular Applause! what heart of manIs proof against thy sweet seducing charms?”
“Variety's the very spice of life,That gives it all its flavour.”
“She that asksHer dear five hundred friends.”
“His head,But strong for service still, and unimpaired.”
“Domestic happiness, thou only blissOf Paradise that has survived the fall!”
“I was a stricken deer that left the herdLong since.”
“Dream after dream ensues;And still are disappointed.”
“Great contest follows, and much learned dustAnd truth disclaiming both.”
“From reveries so airy, from the toilAnd growing old in drawing nothing up.”
“Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.”
“Detested sport,That owes its pleasures to another's pain.”
“How various his employments whom the worldEsteems that busy world an idler too!”
“Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.”
“So manifold, all pleasing in their kind,Runs round; still ending, and beginning still.”
“I burn to set the imprison'd wranglers free,So let us welcome peaceful evening in.”
“Which not even critics criticise.”
“What is it but a map of busy life,Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?”
“And Katerfelto, with his hair on endOf the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.”
“While fancy, like the finger of a clock,Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.”
“O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!”
“With spots quadrangular of diamond form,And spades, the emblems of untimely graves.”
“In indolent vacuity of thought.”
“It seems the part of wisdom.”
“All learned, and all drunk!”
“Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.”
“Those golden timesAnd Sidney, warbler of poetic prose.”
“The Frenchman's darling.”
“Some must be great. Great offices will haveJust in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.”
“Silently as a dream the fabric rose —No sound of hammer or of saw was there.”
“But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise,Kings would not play at.”
“The beggarly last doit.”
“As dreadful as the Manichean god,Adored through fear, strong only to destroy.”
“The still small voice is wanted.”
“He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.”
“With filial confidence inspired,And smiling say, My Father made them all!”
“Acquaint thyself with God, if thou would'st taste Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.”
“Give what Thou canst, without Thee we are poor;And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.”
“There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;In cadence sweet!”
“Here the heartAnd Learning wiser grow without his books.”
“Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one, Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.”
“Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass,Books are not seldom talismans and spells.”
“Some to the fascination of a nameSurrender judgment hoodwink'd.”
“Nature is but a name for an effect,Whose cause is God.”