William Cowper Quotes
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Blest be the art that can immortalize,--the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim to quench it.
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Lived in his saddle, loved the chase, the course, And always, ere he mounted, kiss'd his horse.
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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.
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Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?
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Made poetry a mere mechanic art.
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Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home; He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam.
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Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love.
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A noisy man is always in the right.
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There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
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England, with all thy faults I love thee still, My country!
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But conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs, Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers.
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[My kitten's] gambols are not to be described, and would be incredible, if they could.
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I am out of humanity's reach.
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They love the country, and none else, who seek For their own sake its silence and its shade. Delights which who would leave, that has a heart Susceptible of pity, or a mind Cultured and capable of sober thought.
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Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen, Delightful industry enjoy'd at home, An Nature, in her cultivated trim Dress'ed to his taste, inviting him abroad - Can he want occupation who has these?
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Some people are more nice than wise.
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Learning itself, received into a mind By nature weak, or viciously inclined, Serves but to lead philosophers astray, Where children would with ease discern the way.
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Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill.
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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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Religion, if in heavenly truths attired, Needs only to be seen to be admired.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.