William Cowper Quotes

His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home.

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

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

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

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

Defend me, therefore, common sense, say From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up.

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

Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.

The solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge

In indolent vacuity of thought.

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.

All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence.

Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?

A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about.

The darkest day, if you live till tomorrow, will have passed away.

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

God never meant that man should scale the Heavens By strides of human wisdom. In his works, Though wondrous, he commands us in his word To seek him rather where his mercy shines.

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

The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow.

Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons to love it, too.

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

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

Vice stings us even in our pleasures, but virtue consoles us even in our pains.

Truth is the golden girdle of the globe.

The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow, and when we lie down at night we may safely say to most of our troubles, "Ye have done your worst, and we shall see you no more."

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.

The kindest and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear; And something, every day they live, To pity, and perhaps forgive.

He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not color'd like his own, and having pow'r T' enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.

All we behold is miracle.

God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to performs

The rich are too indolent, the poor too weak, to bear the insupportable fatigue of thinking.

Built God a church and laughed His word to scorn.

Absence of occupation is not rest.

[My kitten's] gambols are not to be described, and would be incredible, if they could.

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 noisy man is always in the right.

Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse, Not more distinct from harmony divine The constant creaking of a country sign.

The fall of waters and the song of birds, And hills that echo to the distant berds, Are luxuries excelling all the glare The world can boast, and her chief favorites share.

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves besides.

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

Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.

An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting.

No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.

I have a kitten,the drollest of all creatures that ever wore a cat's skin.

We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder lean.

Folly ends where genuine hope begins.

The slaves of custom and established mode, With pack-horse constancy we keep the road Crooked or straight, through quags or thorny dells, True to the jingling of our leader's bells.

All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil.

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.

Nature, exerting an unwearied power, Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower; Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads.