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But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world.
William Cowper -
Happy the man who sees a God employed in all the good and ills that checker life.
William Cowper
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The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing.
William Cowper -
A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can.
William Cowper -
Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in white and black the same.
William Cowper -
The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight.
William Cowper -
To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.
William Cowper -
Fashion, leader of a chatt'ring train, Whom man for his own hurt permits to reign Who shifts and changes all things but his shape, And would degrade her vot'ry to an ape, The fruitful parent of abuse and wrong, Holds a usurp'd dominion o'er his tongue, There sits and prompts him with his own disgrace, Prescribes the theme, the tone, and the grimace, And when accomplish'd in her wayward school, Calls gentleman whom she has made a fool.
William Cowper
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Where penury is felt the thought is chain'd, And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few.
William Cowper -
Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.
William Cowper -
But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought Of freedom, in that hope itself possess All that the contest calls for; spirit, strength, The scorn of danger, and united hearts, The surest presage of the good they seek.
William Cowper -
But poverty, with most who whimper forth Their long complaints, is self-inflicted woe; The effect of laziness, or sottish write.
William Cowper -
Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.
William Cowper -
The parable of the prodigal son, the most beautiful fiction that ever was invented; our Saviour's speech to His disciples, with which He closed His earthly ministrations, full of the sublimest dignity and tenderest affection, surpass everything that I ever read; and like the spirit by which they were dictated, fly directly to the heart.
William Cowper
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Sacred interpreter of human thought, How few respect or use thee as they ought! But all shall give account of every wrong, Who dare dishonor or defile the tongue; Who prostitute it in the cause of vice, Or sell their glory at a market-price!
William Cowper -
Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart To modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art.
William Cowper -
Folly ends where genuine hope begins.
William Cowper -
He that attends to his interior self, That has a heart, and keeps it; has a mind That hungers, and supplies it; and who seeks A social, not a dissipated life, Has business.
William Cowper -
Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.
William Cowper -
Heaven speed the canvas, gallantly unfurl'd, To furnish and accommodate a world, To give the Pole the produce of the sun, And knit the unsocial climates into one.
William Cowper
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I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.
William Cowper -
In indolent vacuity of thought.
William Cowper -
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds: And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
William Cowper -
Restraining prayer, we cease to fight; Prayer keeps the Christian's armor bright; And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.
William Cowper