William Cowper quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by William Cowper

William Cowper Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from William Cowper on Wise Famous Quotes.

Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home.

Strange as it may seem, the most ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood.

What is it but a map of busy life,
Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?

There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart; he does not feel for man.

But, oh, Thou bounteous Giver of all good, Thou art, of all Thy gifts, Thyself thy crown!

I am out of humanity's reach.

Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze.

Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.

The beggarly last doit.

God moves in mysterious ways
His wonders to performs

Perhaps thou gav'st me, though unseen, a kiss; Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss.

As if the world and they were hand and glove.

Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.

Some people are more nice than wise.

We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works die too.

But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease.

When I thinkof my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there; But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair.

When nations are to perish in their sins, 'tis in the Church the leprosy begins.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.

The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul bawled out, Well done! As loud as he could bawl.

He that has seen both sides of fifty has lived to little purpose if he has no other views of the world than he had when he was much younger.

No one was ever scolded out of their sins.

And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most.

They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.

Blest be the art that can immortalize,
the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim to quench it.

Oh winter, king of fire side enjoyments, home born happiness.

Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.

Sends Nature forth the daughter of the skies ... To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.

[My kitten] is dressed in a tortoise-shell suit, and I know you will delight in her.

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.

Folly ends where genuine hope begins.

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

All affectation; 'tis my perfect scorn;
Object of my implacable disgust.

Still ending, and beginning still!

The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.

Where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown.

If a great man struggling with misfortunes is a noble object, a little man that despises them is no contemptible one.

Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.

A noisy man is always in the right.

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break, With blessings on your head

A life all turbulence and noise may seem To him that leads it wise and to be praised, But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still waters.

The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

Religion does not censure or exclude
Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.

Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.

Built God a church and laughed His word to scorn.

Heaven's harmony is universal love.

Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace.

But what is truth? 'Twas Pilate's question put
To Truth itself, that deign'd him no reply.

Far happier are the dead methinks than they who look for death and fear it every day.

When all within is peace How nature seems to smile Delights that never cease The live-long day beguile

To see the Law by Christ fulfilled,
And hear His pardoning voice
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall.

He that runs may read.

What we admire we praise; and when we praise,
Advance it into notice, that its worth
Acknowledged, others may admire it too.

Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat,
To peep at such a world; to see the stir
Of the Great Babel, and not feel the crowd.

No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.

Grief is itself a medicine.

There is mercy in every place. And mercy, encouraging thought gives even affliction a grace and reconciles man to his lot.

Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.

The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much. Wisdom is humble that he knows not more.

Spare feast! a radish and an egg.

Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.

But it is a sort of April-weather life that we lead in this world. A little sunshine is generally the prelude to a storm.

No traveler e'er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.

Pleasure is labour too, and tires as much.

Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.

Th' embroid'ry of poetic dreams.

Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.

Misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another's case.

Where penury is felt the thought is chain'd,
And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few.

The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.

Habits are soon assumed; but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.

The only amarantine flower on earth Is virtue.

Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love.

Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, / Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost.

The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue.

Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.

Greece, sound, thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name, But England's Milton equals both in fame.

I am out of humanity's reach.I must finish my journey alone,Never hear the sweet music of speech;I start at the sound of my own.

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.

Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.

Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.

It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.

Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought.

For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes to light, In every cranny but the right.

Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.

The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick, / whom, snoring, she disturbs.

Some write a narrative of wars and feats, Of heroes little known, and call the rant A history.

Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry
Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry.

Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds,
Exhilirate the spirit, and restore
The tone of languid nature.

We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree.

He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech.

Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
Of paradise that has surviv'd the fall!

Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.

Skins may differ, but affection
Dwells in white and black the same.

But many a crime deemed innocent on earth Is registered in Heaven; and these no doubt Have each their record, with a curse annex'd.

No, Freedom has a thousand charms to show
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.

The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.

They best can judge a poet's worth, Who oft themselves have known The pangs of a poetic birth By labours of their own.