William Cowper Quotes

309 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

William Cowper
Remorse, the fatal egg by pleasure laid,
In every bosom where her nest is made,
Hatched by the beams of truth, denies him rest,
And proves a raging scorpion in his breast.

William Cowper
Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is God.

William Cowper
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!

William Cowper
Acquaint thyself with God, if thou would'st taste
His works. Admitted once to his embrace,
Thou shalt perceive that thou was blind before:
Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heart
Made pure shall relish with divine delight
Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper
All zeal for a reform, that gives offense
To peace and charity, is mere pretense.

William Cowper
Shine by the side of every path we tread
With such a luster, he that runs may read.

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper
Pleasure admitted in undue degree, enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free.

William Cowper
Gloriously drunk, obey th' important call.

William Cowper
Admirals extolled for standing still,
Or doing nothing with a deal of skill.

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

William Cowper
She, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.

William Cowper
To trace in Nature's most minute design The signature and stamp of power divine.... The Invisible in things scarce seen revealed, To whom an atom is an ample field.

William Cowper
Some say that in the origin of things, When all creation started into birth, The infant elements receiv'd a law From which they swerve not since.

William Cowper
Nature is a name for an effect, Whose cause is God.

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

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper
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.

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

William Cowper
He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech.

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper