William Cowper Quotes

309 Sourced Quotes

Religion! what treasure untold
Resides in that heavenly word!

William Cowper
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.
Books are not seldom talismans and spells.

William Cowper
Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

William Cowper
And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

William Cowper
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?

William Cowper
Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.

William Cowper
Reasoning at every step he treads,
Man yet mistakes his way,
While meaner things, whom instinct leads,
Are rarely known to stray.

William Cowper
Mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations, who had else
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.

William Cowper
The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry hem; and reading what they never wrote Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!

William Cowper
Not a flower
But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain,
Of his unrivall'd pencil. He inspires
Their balmy odors, and imparts their hues,
And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes
In grains as countless as the seaside sands,
The forms with which he sprinkles all the earth
Happy who walks with him!

William Cowper
Lights of the world, and stars of human race.

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

William Cowper
When scandal has new-minted an old lie,
Or tax'd invention for a fresh supply,
'Tis call'd a satire, and the world appears
Gathering around it with erected ears;
A thousand names are toss'd into the crowd,
Some whisper'd softly, and some twang'd aloud,
Just as the sapience of an author's brain,
Suggests it safe or dangerous to be plain.

William Cowper
And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most.

William Cowper
Strength may wield the ponderous spade, May turn the clod, and wheel the compost home; But elegance, chief grace the garden shows, And most attractive, is the fair result Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.

William Cowper
Now let us sing — Long live the king,
And Gilpin, long live he;
And, when he next doth ride abroad,
May I be there to see!

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper
Dream after dream ensues;
And still they dream that they shall still succeed;
And still are disappointed.

William Cowper
Habits are soon assumed; but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.

William Cowper
Thy morning bounties ere I left my home,
The biscuit, or confectionary plum.

William Cowper
The parable of the prodigal son, the most beautiful fiction that ever was invented; our Saviour's speech to His disciples, with which He closed His earthly ministrations, full of the sublimest dignity and tenderest affection, surpass everything that I ever read; and like the spirit by which they were dictated, fly directly to the heart.

William Cowper
Fate steals along with silent tread,
Found oftenest in what least we dread,
Frowns in the storm with angry brow,
But in the sunshine strikes the blow.

William Cowper
A story, in which native humour reigns, Is often useful, always entertains; A graver fact, enlisted on your side, May furnish illustration, well applied; But sedentary weavers of long tales Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails.

William Cowper
No voice divine the storm allayed,
No light propitious shone;
When snatched from all effectual aid,
We perished, each alone:
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he.

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper