Cowper, William quotes
1731-1800 British PoetThe parson knows enough who knows a Duke.
Cowper, William
Churches
The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.
Cowper, William
Conscience
A fool must now and then be right, by chance.
Cowper, William
Chance
Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.
Cowper, William
Devil
Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.
Cowper, William
Compassion
The man that hails you Tom or Jack, and proves by thumps upon your back how he esteems your merit, is such a friend, that one had need be very much his friend indeed to pardon or to bear it.
Cowper, William
Friends and Friendship
Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.
Cowper, William
Glory
Visitors are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not visit, would do nothing.
Cowper, William
Guests
Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind.
Cowper, William
Fanatics and Fanaticism
How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
Cowper, William
Experts
Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
Cowper, William
Knowledge
Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; Wisdom is humble that it knows no more.
Cowper, William
Knowledge
The darkest day, If you live till tomorrow will have past away.
Cowper, William
Hope
Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.
Cowper, William
Insanity
A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
Cowper, William
Life and Living
The life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
Cowper, William
Idleness
God made the country and man made the town.
Cowper, William
Nations
It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.
Cowper, William
Profanity
A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
Cowper, William
Pride
Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
Cowper, William
Nature
Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger s treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold; but, though theirs they have enroll d me, minds are never to be sold.
Cowper, William
Slavery
No one was ever scolded out of their sins.
Cowper, William
Sin
I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?
Cowper, William
Slavery
Remorse begets reform.
Cowper, William
Remorse
Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word!
Cowper, William
Religion
Candid and generous and just. Boys care but little whom they trust. An error soon corrected -- for who but learns in riper years. That man, when smoothest he appears, is most to be suspected?
Cowper, William
Trust
Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
Cowper, William
Rest
Once more I would adopt the graver style -- a teacher should be sparing of his smile.
Cowper, William
Teachers and Teaching
Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
Cowper, William
Purpose
Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.
Cowper, William
Purpose
Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.
Cowper, William
Solitude
Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend.
Cowper, William
Truth
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.
Cowper, William
Temper
Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.
Cowper, William
Regret
The path of sorrow and that path alone, leads to a land where sorrow is unknown.
Cowper, William
Sorrow
Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
Cowper, William
Absence
O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
Cowper, William
Applause
No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.
Cowper, William
Enthusiasm
Variety s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.
Cowper, William
Variety
A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship s finest feeling, will thrust a dagger at your breast, and say he wounded you in jest, by way of balm for healing.
Cowper, William
Wit