William Cowper Quotes
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If hindrances obstruct the way, Thy magnanimity display. And let thy strength be seen: But O, if Fortune fill thy sail With more than a propitious gale, Take half thy canvas in.
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We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works die too.
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Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene is touching, and the heart is stone, That feels not at that sight, and feels at none.
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Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
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Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.
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God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.
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Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill.
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... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.
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How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
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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.
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A noisy man is always in the right.
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Religion does not censure or exclude Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.
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Thieves at home must hang; but he that puts Into his overgorged and bloated purse The wealth of Indian provinces, escapes.
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A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion; a temper passionate and fierce may suddenly your joys disperse at one immense explosion.
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Some to the fascination of a name, Surrender judgment hoodwinked.
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But, oh, Thou bounteous Giver of all good, Thou art, of all Thy gifts, Thyself thy crown!
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Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound.
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If a great man struggling with misfortunes is a noble object, a little man that despises them is no contemptible one.
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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.
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Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
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It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.
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Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.
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There is a mixture of evil in everything we do; indulgence encourages us to encroach, while we Crabbe exercise the rights of children, we become childish.
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To impute our recovery to medicine, and to carry our view no further, is to rob God of His honor, and is saying in effect that He has parted with the keys of life and death, and, by giving to a drug the power to heal us, has placed our lives out of His own reach.