William Cowper Quotes

309 Sourced Quotes

I was a stricken deer that left the herd
Long since.

William Cowper
I was a poet too; but modern taste
Is so refined and delicate and chaste,
That verse, whatever fire the fancy warms,
Without a creamy smoothness has no charms.
Thus, all success depending on an ear,
And thinking I might purchase it too dear,
If sentiment were sacrific'd to sound,
And truth cut short to make a period round,
I judg'd a man of sense could scarce do worse
Than caper in the morris-dance of verse.

William Cowper
A business with an income at its heels
Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.

William Cowper
I have a kitten, the drollest of all creatures that ever wore a cat's skin.

William Cowper
I am out of humanity's reach.
I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the sweet music of speech;
I start at the sound of my own.

William Cowper
But Conversation, choose what theme we may,
And chiefly when religion leads the way,
Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs,
Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers.

William Cowper
Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen,
Delightful industry enjoy'd at home,
An Nature, in her cultivated trim
Dress'ed to his taste, inviting him abroad -
Can he want occupation who has these?

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

William Cowper
I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
If birds confabulate or no.

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

William Cowper
Reading what they never wrote,
Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work,
And with a well-bred whisper close the scene.

William Cowper
Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And Learning wiser grow without his books.

William Cowper
To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.

William Cowper
Religion does not censure or exclude
Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.

William Cowper
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.

William Cowper
Perhaps thou gav'st me, though unseen, a kiss; Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss.

William Cowper
I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.

William Cowper
But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease.

William Cowper
The dogs did bark, the children screamed,
Up flew the windows all;
And every soul cried out, "Well done!"
As loud as he could bawl.

William Cowper
They love the country, and none else, who seek
For their own sake its silence and its shade.
Delights which who would leave, that has a heart
Susceptible of pity, or a mind
Cultured and capable of sober thought.

William Cowper
All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil.

William Cowper
Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,
Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.

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

William Cowper
This cabin, Mary, in my sight appears,
Built as it has been in our waning years,
A rest afforded to our weary feet,
Preliminary to - the last retreat.

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