William Cowper Quotes

309 Sourced Quotes

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
Two goldfinches, whose sprightly song Had been their mutual solace long, Lived happy prisoners there.

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
How readily we wish time spent revoked, that we might try the ground again where once--through inexperience, as we now perceive--we missed that happiness we might have found!

William Cowper
What we admire we praise; and when we praise,
Advance it into notice, that its worth
Acknowledged, others may admire it too.

William Cowper
And hast thou sworn on every slight pretence,
Till perjuries are common as bad pence,
While thousands, careless of the damning sin,
Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look'd within?

William Cowper
Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?

William Cowper
Oh, popular applause! what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms?
The wisest and the best feel urgent need
Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales;
But swell'd into a gust--who then, alas!
With all his canvas set, and inexpert,
And therefore, heedless, can withstand thy power?

William Cowper
Strange as it may seem, the most ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood.

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

William Cowper
Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made, To turn a penny in the way of trade.

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
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
Alas! if my best Friend, who laid down His life for me, were to remember all the instances in which I have neglected Him, and to plead them against me in judgment, where should I hide my guilty head in the day of recompense? I will pray, therefore, for blessings on my friends, even though they cease to be so, and upon my enemies, though they continue such.

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
Unless a love of virtue light the flame,
Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame;
He hides behind a magisterial air
He own offences, and strips others' bare.

William Cowper
Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home; He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam.

William Cowper
Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace.

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

William Cowper
But poverty, with most who whimper forth
Their long complaints, is self-inflicted woe;
The effect of laziness, or sottish write.

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

William Cowper
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.

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

William Cowper
Most satirists are indeed a public scourge; Their mildest physic is a farrier's purge; Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr'd, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, By lean despair upon an empty purse.

William Cowper