Abraham Cowley Quotes - Page 3

Why to mute fish should'st thou thyself discoverAnd not to me, thy no less silent lover?

When Israel was from bondage led,Led by the Almighty's handFrom out of foreign land,The great sea beheld and fled.

s a scene of changes, and to be constant in Nature were inconstancy.

Nothing in Nature's sober found, But an eternal Health goes round. Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high-- Fill all the Glasses there; for why Should every Creature Drink but I? Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?

But what is woman? Only one of nature's agreeable blunders.

As for being much known by sight, and pointed out, I cannot comprehend the honor that lies withal; whatsoever it be, every mountebank has it more than the best doctor.

Thus each extreme to equal danger tends, Plenty, as well as Want, can sep'rate friends.

There have been fewer friends on earth than kings.

The present is an eternal now.

"We may talk what we please," he cries in his enthusiasm for the oldest of the arts, "of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles, in fields d'or or d'argent; but, if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms."

This only grant me, that my means may lie, too low for envy, for contempt to high.

What shall I do to be for ever known, And make the age to come my own?

Acquaintance I would have, but when it depends; not on number, but the choice of friends.

Life for delays and doubts no time does give, None ever yet made haste enough to live.

There is some help for all the defects of fortune; for, if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of them shorter.

It is a hard and nice subject for a man to speak of himself: it grates his own heart to say anything of disparagement, and the reader's ear to hear anything of praise from him.

Who lets slip fortune, her shall never find: Occasion once past by, is bald behind.

Curs'd be that wretch (Death's factor sure) who brought Dire swords into the peaceful world, and taught Smiths (who before could only make The spade, the plough-share, and the rake) Arts, in most cruel wise Man's left to epitomize!

The present is all the ready money Fate can give.

Much will always wanting be To him who much desires.

The monster London laugh at me.

All the world's bravery that delights our eyes is but thy several liveries.

Happy insect! what can be In happiness compared to thee? Fed with nourishment divine, The dewy morning's gentle wine! Nature waits upon thee still, And thy verdant cup does fill; 'Tis fill'd wherever thou dost tread, Nature's self's thy Ganymede.

Coy Nature, (which remain'd, though aged grown, A beauteous virgin still, enjoy'd by none, Nor seen unveil'd by anyone), When Harvey's violent passion she did see, Began to tremble and to flee; Took sanctuary, like Daphne, in a tree: There Daphne's Lover stopped, and thought it much The very leaves of her to touch: But Harvey, our Apollo, stopp'd not so; Into the Bark and Root he after her did go!

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise, He who defers this work from day to day, Does on a river's bank expecting stay, Till the whole stream, which stopped him, should be gone, That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on.