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Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
William Cowper -
All affectation; 'tis my perfect scorn; Object of my implacable disgust.
William Cowper
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There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
William Cowper -
How happy it is to believe, with a steadfast assurance, that our petitions are heard even while we are making them; and how delightful to meet with a proof of it in the effectual and actual grant of them.
William Cowper -
There is mercy in every place. And mercy, encouraging thought gives even affliction a grace and reconciles man to his lot.
William Cowper -
[My kitten's] gambols are not to be described, and would be incredible, if they could.
William Cowper -
Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.
William Cowper -
O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
William Cowper
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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.
William Cowper -
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.
William Cowper -
Some men make gain a fountain, whence proceeds A stream of liberal and heroic deeds; The swell of pity, not to be confined Within the scanty limits of the mind.
William Cowper -
... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.
William Cowper -
But, oh, Thou bounteous Giver of all good, Thou art, of all Thy gifts, Thyself thy crown!
William Cowper -
Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.
William Cowper
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The beggarly last doit.
William Cowper -
Vice stings us even in our pleasures, but virtue consoles us even in our pains.
William Cowper -
No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.
William Cowper -
Grief is itself a medicine.
William Cowper -
How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
William Cowper -
Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
William Cowper
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Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill.
William Cowper -
Strange as it may seem, the most ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood.
William Cowper -
They best can judge a poet's worth, Who oft themselves have known The pangs of a poetic birth By labours of their own.
William Cowper -
Made poetry a mere mechanic art.
William Cowper