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Thieves at home must hang; but he that puts Into his overgorged and bloated purse The wealth of Indian provinces, escapes. -- 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
A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator. -- William Cowper
The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile. -- William Cowper
This fond attachment to the well-known place
Whence first we started into life's long race,
Maintains its hold with such unfailing sway,
We feel it e'en in age, and at our latest day. -- William Cowper
Knowledge dwells in heads replete with thoughts of other men; wisdom in minds attentive to their own. -- 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
Man in society is like a flow'r,
Blown in its native bed. 'Tis there alone
His faculties expanded in full bloom
Shine out, there only reach their proper use. -- 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
If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one ... -- William Cowper
The kindest and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear; And something, every day they live, To pity, and perhaps forgive. -- 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
Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds,
Exhilirate the spirit, and restore
The tone of languid nature. -- William Cowper
Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought. -- William Cowper
Acquaint thyself with God, if thou would'st tasteHis works. Admitted once to his embrace,Thou shalt perceive that thou was blind before:Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heartMade pure shall relish with divine delightTill then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought. -- William Cowper
I have a kitten,the drollest of all creatures that ever wore a cat's skin. -- William Cowper
What is there in the vale of lifeHalf so delightful as a wife;When friendship, love and peace combineTo stamp the marriage-bond divine? -- William Cowper
O solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place. -- 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
If the world like it not, so much the worse for them. -- William Cowper
Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule. -- William Cowper
Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger's treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold; but, though theirs they have enroll'd me, minds are never to be sold. -- William Cowper
The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight. -- 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
Not to understand a treasure's worth till time has stole away the slighted good, is cause of half the poverty we feel, and makes the world the wilderness it is. -- William Cowper
Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain. -- William Cowper
God moves in mysterious ways
His wonders to performs -- William Cowper
A teacher should be sparing of his smile. -- William Cowper
The dearest idol I have known,
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.
So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb. -- William Cowper
He finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not color'd like his own, and having pow'r
T' enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey. -- William Cowper
Pity! Religion has so seldom found
A skilful guide into poetic ground!
The flowers would spring where'er she deign'd to stray
And every muse attend her in her way. -- William Cowper
Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break, With blessings on your head -- William Cowper
A noisy man is always in the right. -- William Cowper
But, oh, Thou bounteous Giver of all good, Thou art, of all Thy gifts, Thyself thy crown! -- William Cowper
Nature, exerting an unwearied power,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower;
Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads
The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads. -- William Cowper
Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray. -- William Cowper
The proud are ever most provoked by pride. -- William Cowper
To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think. -- William Cowper
He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides. -- William Cowper
A Christian's wit is offensive light,
A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight;
Vig'rous in age as in the flush of youth,
'Tis always active on the side of truth. -- William Cowper
A life all turbulence and noise may seem To him that leads it wise and to be praised, But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still waters. -- William Cowper
For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes to light, In every cranny but the right. -- 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
The fall of waters and the song of birds,
And hills that echo to the distant berds,
Are luxuries excelling all the glare
The world can boast, and her chief favorites share. -- William Cowper
The man that hails you Tom or Jack, and proves by thumps upon your back how he esteems your merit, is such a friend, that one had need be very much his friend indeed to pardon or to bear it. -- William Cowper
I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life, Coincident, exhibit lucid proof That he is honest in the sacred cause. -- William Cowper
God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, and the devil made sin; So God made a cole-pit to put the devil in. -- William Cowper
The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow, and when we lie down at night we may safely say to most of our troubles, "Ye have done your worst, and we shall see you no more." -- William Cowper
A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun, It gives a light to every age, It gives, but borrows none. -- William Cowper
Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream. -- William Cowper
Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, / Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost. -- William Cowper
Greece, sound, thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name, But England's Milton equals both in fame. -- William Cowper
And the tear that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile. -- 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
How shall I speak thee, or thy power address Thou God of our idolatry, the Press ... Like Eden's dead probationary tree, Knowledge of good and evil is from thee. -- William Cowper
Men deal with life as children with their play,
Who first misuse, then cast their toys away. -- 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
O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, ... I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturbed Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know. -- William Cowper
Oh winter, king of fire side enjoyments, home born happiness. -- William Cowper
But many a crime deemed innocent on earth Is registered in Heaven; and these no doubt Have each their record, with a curse annex'd. -- William Cowper
No wisdom that [my kitten] may gain by experience and reflection hereafter will compensate for the loss of her present hilarity. -- William Cowper
Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,
And, while the bubbling and loud hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column and the cups
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful ev'ning in. -- 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
The man to solitude accustom'd long, Perceives in everything that lives a tongue; Not animals alone, but shrubs and trees Have speech for him, and understood with ease, After long drought when rains abundant fall, He hears the herbs and flowers rejoicing all. -- William Cowper
Eternity for bubbles proves at last a senseless bargain. -- William Cowper
Spare feast! a radish and an egg. -- William Cowper
Tea - the cups that cheer but not inebriate. -- William Cowper
True modesty is a discerning grace
And only blushes in the proper place;
But counterfeit is blind, and skulks through fear,
Where 'tis a shame to be asham'd t' appear:
Humility the parent of the first,
The last by vanity produc'd and nurs'd. -- William Cowper
The still small voice is wanted. -- William Cowper
Scenes must be beautiful which daily view'd
Please daily, and whose novelty survives
Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years. -- William Cowper
Vice stings us even in our pleasures, but virtue consoles us even in our pains. -- William Cowper
That good diffused may more abundant grow. -- William Cowper
Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts. -- William Cowper
An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands. -- William Cowper
If a great man struggling with misfortunes is a noble object, a little man that despises them is no contemptible one. -- William Cowper
Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze. -- William Cowper
Philologists, who chase A painting syllable through time and space Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark, To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's Ark. -- William Cowper
All truth is precious, if not all divine; and what dilates the powers must needs refine. -- William Cowper
I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original. -- William Cowper
Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention. -- William Cowper
Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing,
Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound. -- William Cowper
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave;
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies. -- William Cowper
But it is a sort of April-weather life that we lead in this world. A little sunshine is generally the prelude to a storm. -- William Cowper
The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away. -- William Cowper
Unmissed but by his dogs and by his groom. -- William Cowper
In a fleshy tomb I am buried above ground. -- William Cowper
No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar. -- 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
Where penury is felt the thought is chain'd,
And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few. -- 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
To impute our recovery to medicine, and to carry our view no further, is to rob God of His honor, and is saying in effect that He has parted with the keys of life and death, and, by giving to a drug the power to heal us, has placed our lives out of His own reach. -- William Cowper
My soul is sick with every day's report of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled. -- William Cowper
Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time. -- William Cowper
Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill. -- William Cowper
The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul bawled out, Well done! As loud as he could bawl. -- William Cowper
Truth is the golden girdle of the globe. -- 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
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
Where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown. -- William Cowper
No, Freedom has a thousand charms to show
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know. -- William Cowper
But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought Of freedom, in that hope itself possess All that the contest calls for; spirit, strength, The scorn of danger, and united hearts, The surest presage of the good they seek. -- William Cowper
The rich are too indolent, the poor too weak, to bear the insupportable fatigue of thinking. -- William Cowper
Then to the dance, and make the sober moon ... witness of joys that shun the sights of noon. -- William Cowper
We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree. -- William Cowper
Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons to love it, too. -- William Cowper
Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall. -- William Cowper
Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose. -- William Cowper
Even in the stifling bosom of the town,
A garden, in which nothing thrives, has charms
That soothes the rich possessor; much consol'd,
That here and there some sprigs of mournful mint,
Or nightshade, or valerian, grace the well
He cultivates. -- William Cowper
The Cross! There, and there only (though the deist rave, and the atheist, if Earth bears so base a slave); There and there only, is the power to save. -- 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
Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,The substitute for genius, sense, and wit. -- William Cowper
Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind. -- William Cowper
What is it but a map of busy life,
Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns? -- William Cowper
How soft the music of those village bells, Falling at interval upon the ear In cadence sweet; now dying all away, Now pealing loud again, and louder still, Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on! With easy force it opens all the cells Where Memory slept. -- William Cowper
An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will turn aside and let the reptile live. -- William Cowper
When all within is peace How nature seems to smile Delights that never cease The live-long day beguile -- William Cowper
The parson knows enough who knows a Duke. -- William Cowper
There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk. -- 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
But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world. -- 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
The solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge -- William Cowper
'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are weeds without it. -- William Cowper
It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience. -- William Cowper
The few that pray at all pray oft amiss. -- William Cowper
It is a terrible thought, that nothing is ever forgotten; that not an oath is ever uttered that does not continue to vibrate through all times, in the wide spreading current of sound; that not a prayer is lisped, that its record is not to be found st -- William Cowper
Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word! -- William Cowper
Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain. -- William Cowper
No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed. -- William Cowper
O Winter, ruler of the inverted year! -- William Cowper
Assail'd by scandal and the tongue of strife,
His only answer was, a blameless life. -- William Cowper
Pleasure admitted in undue degree, enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free. -- William Cowper
There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know. -- William Cowper
God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm. -- William Cowper
All flesh is grass. and all its glory fades
Like the fair flower dishevell'd in the wind;
Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream;
The man we celebrate must find a tomb,
And we that worship him, ignoble graves. -- William Cowper
The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower. -- 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
So let us welcome peaceful evening in. -- William Cowper
Blest be the art that can immortalize,
the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim to quench it. -- William Cowper
It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme. -- William Cowper
No traveler e'er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road. -- William Cowper
A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about. -- 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
The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth. -- William Cowper
Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books. -- William Cowper
All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil. -- William Cowper
God made the country, and man made the town. -- William Cowper
The only amarantine flower on earth Is virtue. -- William Cowper
When I thinkof my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there; But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair. -- William Cowper
The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow. -- William Cowper
Events of all sorts creep or fly exactly as God pleases. -- William Cowper
Sacred interpreter of human thought,
How few respect or use thee as they ought!
But all shall give account of every wrong,
Who dare dishonor or defile the tongue;
Who prostitute it in the cause of vice,
Or sell their glory at a market-price! -- William Cowper
But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost. -- William Cowper
But what is truth? 'Twas Pilate's question put
To Truth itself, that deign'd him no reply. -- William Cowper
Ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touch'd by the Midas finger of the state, Bleed gold for ministers to sport away. Drink, and be mad then; 'tis your country bids! -- 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
Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay. -- William Cowper
Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene is touching, and the heart is stone, That feels not at that sight, and feels at none. -- William Cowper
Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace. -- William Cowper
How happy it is to believe, with a steadfast assurance, that our petitions are heard even while we are making them; and how delightful to meet with a proof of it in the effectual and actual grant of them. -- 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
What we admire we praise; and when we praise,
Advance it into notice, that its worth
Acknowledged, others may admire it too. -- 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
She that asks
Her dear five hundred friends, contemns them all,
And hates their coming. -- William Cowper
Lights of the world, and stars of human race. -- William Cowper
She, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke. -- William Cowper
Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy. -- William Cowper
Necessity invented stools,
Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs,
And luxury the accomplish'd Sofa last. -- William Cowper
God never meant that man should scale the Heavens
By strides of human wisdom. In his works,
Though wondrous, he commands us in his word
To seek him rather where his mercy shines. -- William Cowper
E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream
thy flowing wounds supply,
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die. -- William Cowper
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
Lived in his saddle, loved the chase, the course, And always, ere he mounted, kiss'd his horse. -- William Cowper
In the vast, and the minute, we see
The unambiguous footsteps of the God,
Who gives its lustre to an insect's wing
And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds. -- 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
The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man. -- William Cowper
Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they. -- William Cowper
Built God a church and laughed His word to scorn. -- William Cowper
Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair. -- William Cowper
Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties with glorious joy. -- William Cowper
How various his employments whom the world Calls idle; and who justly in return Esteems that busy world an idler too! -- 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
Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary, and therefore take care to be constantly employed ... When I can find no other occupation, I think; and when I think, I am very apt to do it in rhyme. -- William Cowper
Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God. -- William Cowper
They fix attention, heedless of your pain,
With oaths like rivets forced into the brain;
And e'en when sober truth prevails throughout,
They swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt. -- William Cowper
Defend me, therefore, common sense, say
From reveries so airy, from the toil
Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up. -- William Cowper
A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct; The language plain, and incidents well link'd; Tell not as new what ev'ry body knows; and, new or old, still hasten to a close. -- William Cowper
We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder lean. -- William Cowper
But animated nature sweeter still, to soothe and satisfy the human ear. -- William Cowper
Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
Of paradise that has surviv'd the fall! -- William Cowper
An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting. -- William Cowper
The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick, / whom, snoring, she disturbs. -- William Cowper
Our love is principle, and has its root
In reason, is judicious, manly, free. -- William Cowper
Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose. -- William Cowper
No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach. -- William Cowper
Pleasure is labour too, and tires as much. -- William Cowper
England with all thy faults, I love thee still
My country! and, while yet a nook is left Where English minds and manners may be found, Shall be constrained to love thee. -- William Cowper
All affectation; 'tis my perfect scorn;
Object of my implacable disgust. -- William Cowper
Fancy, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home. -- William Cowper
But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease. -- William Cowper
Misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another's case. -- William Cowper
Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing. -- William Cowper
But truths on which depends our main concern, That 'tis our shame and misery not to learn, Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a lustre he that runs may read. -- William Cowper
A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feeling, will thrust a dagger at your breast, and say he wounded you in jest, by way of balm for healing. -- William Cowper
I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace. -- William Cowper
I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though graced with polished manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. -- William Cowper
Solitude, seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave; a sepulchre in which the living lie, where all good qualities grow sick and die -- William Cowper
Hast thou not learnd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, That no success attends on spears and swords Unblest, and that the battle is the Lords? -- William Cowper
Is base in kind, and born to be a slave. -- William Cowper
Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt. -- William Cowper
When one that holds communion with the skies
Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings. -- 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
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
Religion does not censure or exclude
Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued. -- William Cowper
Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away. -- William Cowper
Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys: Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours. -- William Cowper
As if the world and they were hand and glove. -- William Cowper
Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace? -- William Cowper
How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home. -- William Cowper
Sends Nature forth the daughter of the skies ... To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes. -- William Cowper
Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love. -- William Cowper
Still ending, and beginning still! -- William Cowper
The path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the land where sorrow is unknown. -- William Cowper
A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can. -- William Cowper
There is mercy in every place. And mercy, encouraging thought gives even affliction a grace and reconciles man to his lot. -- William Cowper
Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard: To carry nature lengths unknown before, To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more. -- William Cowper
Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew. -- William Cowper
God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction. -- William Cowper
Strange as it may seem, the most ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood. -- William Cowper
The beggarly last doit. -- William Cowper
Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too. -- William Cowper
Absence of occupation is not rest. -- William Cowper
Some people are more nice than wise. -- William Cowper
If hindrances obstruct the way, Thy magnanimity display. And let thy strength be seen: But O, if Fortune fill thy sail With more than a propitious gale, Take half thy canvas in. -- William Cowper
I seem forsaken and alone, / I hear the lion roar; / And every door is shut but one, / And that is Mercy's door. -- William Cowper
The good we never miss we rarely prize -- William Cowper
War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at. -- William Cowper
Heaven's harmony is universal love. -- William Cowper
Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame,
all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love. -- William Cowper
Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both. -- William Cowper
We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works die too. -- 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
He that has seen both sides of fifty has lived to little purpose if he has no other views of the world than he had when he was much younger. -- William Cowper
The darkest day if you live till tomorrow will have past away. -- William Cowper
The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue. -- 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
Happy the man who sees a God employed in all the good and ills that checker life. -- William Cowper
He that runs may read. -- William Cowper
Satan trembles, when he sees the weakest Saint upon his knees. -- William Cowper
Far happier are the dead methinks than they who look for death and fear it every day. -- William Cowper
Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more. -- William Cowper
He that attends to his interior self,
That has a heart, and keeps it; has a mind
That hungers, and supplies it; and who seeks
A social, not a dissipated life,
Has business. -- William Cowper
When was public virtue to be found when private was not? -- William Cowper
Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will. -- William Cowper
Religion, if in heavenly truths attired, Needs only to be seen to be admired. -- William Cowper
A lawyer's dealings should be just and fair;
Honesty shines with great advantage there. -- William Cowper
The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing. -- 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
Folly ends where genuine hope begins. -- William Cowper
As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon, So sophistry, cleaves close to, and protects Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects. -- William Cowper
Variety's the very spice of life, that gives it all it's flavour. -- William Cowper
Grief is itself a medicine. -- William Cowper
Some write a narrative of wars and feats, Of heroes little known, and call the rant A history. -- William Cowper
Some to the fascination of a name, Surrender judgment hoodwinked. -- William Cowper
Toil for the brave! The brave that are no more. -- William Cowper
Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd. -- William Cowper
I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum? -- William Cowper
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much. Wisdom is humble that he knows not more. -- William Cowper
Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart
To modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art. -- William Cowper
A life of ease is a difficult pursuit. -- 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
And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most. -- William Cowper
With spots quadrangular of diamond form, ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, and spades, the emblems of untimely graves. -- William Cowper
They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed. -- William Cowper
Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours. -- William Cowper
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart; he does not feel for man. -- William Cowper
Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one. -- William Cowper
And diff'ring judgments serve but to declare that truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where. -- William Cowper
Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed. -- William Cowper
How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light. -- William Cowper
Religion, richest favor of the skies. -- William Cowper
Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home. -- William Cowper
Laugh at all you trembled at before. -- William Cowper
Their tameness is shocking to me. -- William Cowper
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. -- William Cowper
Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made, To turn a penny in the way of trade. -- William Cowper
When nations are to perish in their sins, 'tis in the Church the leprosy begins. -- William Cowper
I am out of humanity's reach. -- William Cowper
[My kitten's] gambols are not to be described, and would be incredible, if they could. -- William Cowper
Though peace be made, yet it's interest that keep peace. -- William Cowper
We are never more in danger than when we think ourselves most secure, nor in reality more secure than when we seem to be most in danger. -- William Cowper
The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged. -- William Cowper
All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence. -- William Cowper
How! leap into the pit our life to save?
To save our life leap all into the grave. -- William Cowper
Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid. -- 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
What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void The world can never fill. -- William Cowper
No one was ever scolded out of their sins. -- William Cowper
In indolent vacuity of thought. -- William Cowper
Habits are soon assumed; but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive. -- William Cowper
Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry
Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry. -- William Cowper
O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms? -- William Cowper
[My kitten] is dressed in a tortoise-shell suit, and I know you will delight in her. -- William Cowper
When from soft love proceeds the deep distress, ah! why forbid the willing tears to flow? -- William Cowper
Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore. -- William Cowper
Th' embroid'ry of poetic dreams. -- William Cowper
Great offices will have great talents. -- William Cowper
All we behold is miracle. -- William Cowper
Books are not seldom talismans and spells. -- William Cowper
His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home. -- William Cowper
Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat,
To peep at such a world; to see the stir
Of the Great Babel, and not feel the crowd. -- William Cowper
Skins may differ, but affection
Dwells in white and black the same. -- 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 strong>ststrong>and'strong>ststrong> at bay. -- William Cowper
Poor England! thou art a devoted deer,br>Beset with every ill but that of fear.br>The nations hunt; all mock thee for a prey;br>They swarm around thee, and thou stand'st at bay. -- William Cowper
