William Cowper Quotes

Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word!

Lights of the world, and stars of human race.

[My kitten] is dressed in a tortoise-shell suit, and I know you will delight in her.

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.

A lawyer's dealings should be just and fair; Honesty shines with great advantage there.

There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart; he does not feel for man.

To see the Law by Christ fulfilled, And hear His pardoning voice Changes a slave into a child, And duty into choice.

The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue.

He that attends to his interior self, That has a heart, and keeps it; has a mind That hungers, and supplies it; and who seeks A social, not a dissipated life, Has business.

Poor England! thou art a devoted deer, Beset with every ill but that of fear. The nations hunt; all mock thee for a prey; They swarm around thee, and thou stand'st at bay.

She that asks Her dear five hundred friends, contemns them all, And hates their coming.

For when was public virtue to be found Where private was not?

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.

All truth is precious, if not all divine; and what dilates the powers must needs refine.

But what is truth? 'Twas Pilate's question put To Truth itself, that deign'd him no reply.

Our love is principle, and has its root In reason, is judicious, manly, free.

Domestic happiness, thou only bliss Of paradise that has surviv'd the fall!

My soul is sick with every day's report of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled.

If a great man struggling with misfortunes is a noble object, a little man that despises them is no contemptible one.

God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction.

Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought.

But, oh, Thou bounteous Giver of all good, Thou art, of all Thy gifts, Thyself thy crown!

Lord, it is my chief complaint, That my love is weak and faint; Yet I love thee and adore, Oh for grace to love thee more!

Man in society is like a flow'r, Blown in its native bed. 'Tis there alone His faculties expanded in full bloom Shine out, there only reach their proper use.

How! leap into the pit our life to save? To save our life leap all into the grave.

When I thinkof my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there; But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair.

Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, / Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost.

When all within is peace How nature seems to smile Delights that never cease The live-long day beguile

Made poetry a mere mechanic art.

No one was ever scolded out of their sins.

Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart To modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art.

In man or woman, but far most in man, And most of all in man that ministers, And serves the altar, in my soul I loathe All affectation. 'Tis my perfect scorn: Object of my implacable disgust.

Anticipated rents, and bills unpaid, Force many a shining youth into the shade, Not to redeem his time, but his estate, And play the fool, but at the cheaper rate.

... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.

Heaven speed the canvas, gallantly unfurl'd, To furnish and accommodate a world, To give the Pole the produce of the sun, And knit the unsocial climates into one.

Some drill and bore The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by which we learn, That he who made it, and reveal'd its date To Moses, was mistaken in its age.

Laugh at all you trembled at before.

I am out of humanity's reach.

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.

Great offices will have great talents.

All affectation; 'tis my perfect scorn; Object of my implacable disgust.

Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.

One catfish does not make a creek, nor one hero a nation.

There is no more graceful and healthful accomplishment for a lady than fly-fishing, and there is no reason why a lady should not in every respect, rival a gentleman in the gentle art.

God moves in mysterious waysHis wonders to performs

If the world like it not, so much the worse for them.

When we don't pray, we quit the fight. Prayer keeps the Christian's armor bright. And Satan trembles when he sees. The weakest saint upon his knees.

God made the country and man made the town.

What is there in the vale of life Half so delightful as a wife When Friendship love and peace combine To stamp the marriage bond divine?

The town is man's world but this (country life) is of God.