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William Cowper -
The Task (1785)
69 Sourced Quotes
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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
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Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.
William Cowper
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Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumor of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more.
William Cowper
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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
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But, oh, Thou bounteous Giver of all good, Thou art, of all Thy gifts, Thyself thy crown!
William Cowper
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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
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Nature is a name for an effect, Whose cause is God.
William Cowper
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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
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Gloriously drunk, obey th' important call.
William Cowper
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And in that hour,
The seeds of cruelty, that since have swell'd
To such gigantic and enormous growth,
Were sown in human nature's fruitful soil.
Hence date the persecution and the pain
That man inflicts on all inferior kinds,
Regardless of their plaints.
William Cowper
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Transforms old print
To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes
Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.
William Cowper
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Newton, childlike sage!
Sagacious reader of the works of God.
William Cowper
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O Popular Applause! what heart of man
Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms?
William Cowper
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United yet divided, twain at once:
So sit two kings of Brentford on one throne.
William Cowper
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What is it but a map of busy life,
Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?
William Cowper
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Some to the fascination of a name
Surrender judgment hoodwink'd.
William Cowper
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Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds,
Exhilarate the spirit, and restore
The tone of languid nature.
William Cowper
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Give what Thou canst, without Thee we are poor;
And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.
William Cowper
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Silently as a dream the fabric rose —
No sound of hammer or of saw was there.
William Cowper
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Those golden times
And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings,
And Sidney, warbler of poetic prose.
William Cowper
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The slope of faces, from the floor to th' roof,
(As if one master-spring controlled them all),
Relaxed into a universal grin.
Of the theatre
William Cowper
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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
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Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a private man,
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue.
William Cowper
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Mountains interposed
Make enemies of nations, who had else
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.
William Cowper
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Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.
William Cowper
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Quote of the day
Life is not having been told that the man has just waxed the floor.
Ogden Nash
William Cowper
Creative Commons
Born:
November 26, 1731
Died:
April 25, 1800
(aged 68)
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