Abraham Cowley Quotes

80 Sourced Quotes

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Abraham Cowley
Ev'en Thou my breast with such blest rage inspire,
As mov'd the tuneful strings of Davids Lyre

Abraham Cowley
His time is forever, everywhere his place.

Abraham Cowley
Acquaintance I would have, but when't depends
Not on the number, but the choice of friends.

Abraham Cowley
Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape
Who dost in every country change thy shape!

Abraham Cowley
Well then; I now do plainly see This busy world and I shall ne'er agree; The very honey of all earthly joy Does of all meats the soonest cloy, And they (methinks) deserve my pity, Who for it can endure the stings, The crowd, and buzz and murmurings, Of this great hive, the city.

Abraham Cowley
Fill all the glasses there, for why
Should every creature drink but I?
Why, man of morals, tell me why?

Abraham Cowley
The fairest garden in her looks,
And in her mind the wisest books.

Abraham Cowley
To virgin minds, which yet their native whiteness hold,
Not yet discoloured with the love of gold
(That jaundice of the soul,
Which makes it look so gilded and so foul)

Abraham Cowley
Oh happy, (if his happiness he knows)
The Countrey Swain! on whom kind Heav'n bestows
At home all Riches that wise Nature needs;
Whom the just Earth with easie plenty feeds.

Abraham Cowley
To be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world; or rather, a retreat from the world, as it is man's, into the world, as it is God's.

Abraham Cowley
We griev'd, we sigh'd, we wept; we never blush'd before.

Abraham Cowley
Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say, Have ye not seen us walking every day? Was there a tree about which did not know The love betwixt us two?

Abraham Cowley
We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine,
But search of deep philosophy,
Wit, eloquence, and poetry;
Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine.

Abraham Cowley
When Israel was from bondage led,
Led by the Almighty's hand
From out of foreign land,
The great sea beheld and fled.

Abraham Cowley
Lo, this great work, a Temple to thy praise,
On polisht Pillars of strong Verse I raise!
A Temple, where if Thou vouchsafe to dwell,
It Solomons, and Herods shall excel.
Too long the Muses-Land have Heathen bin;
Their Gods too long were Dev'ils, and Vertues Sin;
But Thou, Eternal Word, hast call'd forth Me
Th' Apostle, to convert that World to Thee;

Abraham Cowley
Here Lucifer the mighty Captive reigns;
Proud, 'midst his Woes, and Tyrant in his Chains.

Abraham Cowley
I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life only to the culture of them and the study of nature.
And there (with no design beyond my wall) whole and entire to lie, In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty.

Abraham Cowley
Why to mute fish should'st thou thyself discover
And not to me, thy no less silent lover?

Abraham Cowley
The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
And drinks, and gapes for drink again;
The plants suck in the earth, and are
With constant drinking fresh and fair.

Abraham Cowley