Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

William Cowper Quotes - Page 11

All Quotes Age Art Children Church Country Death Earth Evil Friendship Gardening Giving God Grace Happiness Heart Heaven Home Humanity Inspirational Joy Judging Judgment Kissing Knowledge Liberty Life Loss Love Lying Manners Mercy Music Nature Pain Pleasure Poetry Poverty Prayer Preaching Pride Purpose Reading Religion Retirement Running Sin Skins Slavery Solitude Son Soul Sports Spring Time Truth Virtue War Water Weed Winter Wisdom Wit

There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

Clerks, Sparks, Preaching

William Cowper, John Smythe MEMES (1861). “The Letters of William Cowper. Edited by Rev. J. S. Memes. [With a Portrait.]”, p.82

Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry-- Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry.

Missing, Lessons, Tales

William Cowper (1858). “Works of Cowper and Thomson”, p.119

For when was public virtue to be found Where private was not?

Liberty, Virtue, Found

"The Life and Works of William Cowper: Now First Completed by the Introduction of His "Private Correspondence."".

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.

Crush, Humanity, Reptiles

William Cowper (1826). “Poems. With an introductory essay by J. Montgomery”, p.340

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.

Eden, Evil, Tree

How various his employments whom the world Calls idle; and who justly in return Esteems that busy world an idler too!

Idlers, Employment, World

William Cowper, Robert Southey, William Harvey (1835). “The Works of William Cowper: Comprising His Poems, Correspondence, and Translations. With a Life of the Author”, p.15

The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade Pants for the refuge of some rural shade, Where all his long anxieties forgot Amid the charms of a sequester'd spot, Or recollected only to gild o'er And add a smile to what was sweet before, He may possess the joys he thinks he sees, Lay his old age upon the lap of ease, Improve the remnant of his wasted span. And having lived a trifler, die a man.

Sweet, Retirement, Thinking

William Cowper (1847). “Poems, with a memoir of the author”, p.146

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.

Business, Heart, Self

William Cowper (1855). “The complete poetical works of William Cowper, with life and critical notice of his writings”, p.155

When scandal has new-minted an old lie, Or tax'd invention for a fresh supply, 'Tis call'd a satire, and the world appears Gathering around it with erected ears; A thousand names are toss'd into the crowd, Some whisper'd softly, and some twang'd aloud, Just as the sapience of an author's brain, Suggests it safe or dangerous to be plain.

Lying, Names, Brain

William Cowper, Henry Stebbing (1869). “The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper, Esq: Including the Hymns and Translations from Madame Guion, Milton, Etc. ; with a Memoir of the Author”, p.124

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.

Spring, Flower, Religion

William Cowper (1855). “The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper: With Life, and Critical Notice of His Writings. Eight Engravings on Steel”, p.14

Go, mark the matchless working of the power That shuts within the seed the future flower; Bids these in elegance of form excel. In color these, and those delight the smell; Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.

Daughter, Flower, Eye

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.

Men, Heroic Deeds, Mind

William Cowper (1845). “The Poetical Works of William Cowper”, p.98

The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.

Men, Mind, Earth

William Cowper, Thomas Shuttleworth Grimshawe, John William Cunningham (1835). “The Life and Works of William Cowper: Now First Completed by the Introduction of His "Private Correspondence."”, p.240

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.

Home, Sight, Years

William Cowper, John William Cunningham, William Hayley (1835). “The Life and Works of William Cowper: His life and letters by William Hayley. Now first completed by the introduction of Cowper's private correspondence”, p.172

Made poetry a mere mechanic art.

Art, Poetry, Mechanic

'Table Talk' (1782) l. 654 (on Pope)

Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought.

Dignity, Break

William Cowper, John William Cunningham (1835). “The works ¬of William Cowper: Poems : with an essay on the genius and poetry of Cowper”, p.210

The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue.

Art, Passion, Poetry

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?

Sweet, Heart, Men

William Cowper, James Sambrook (2016). “William Cowper: The Task and Selected Other Poems”, p.100, Routledge

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

Writing, Self, Long

William Cowper (1856). “The task, Table talk, and other poems: With critical observations of various authors on his genius and character, and notes, critical and illustrative”, p.233

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.

Real, Men, Feet

'The Task' (1785) bk. 6 'The Winter Walk at Noon' l. 560

But what is truth? 'Twas Pilate's question put To Truth itself, that deign'd him no reply.

Truth

William Cowper (1856). “The task, Table talk, and other poems: With critical observations of various authors on his genius and character, and notes, critical and illustrative”, p.186

All truth is precious, if not all divine; and what dilates the powers must needs refine.

Truth, Needs, Divine

William Cowper (1855). “The complete poetical works of William Cowper, with life and critical notice of his writings”, p.75

Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time.

Time, Spring, Fall

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.

God, Men, Shining

William Cowper (1855). “The complete poetical works of William Cowper, with life and critical notice of his writings”, p.152

He that runs may read.

Running, Reading, May

William Cowper, James Thomson (1832). “The Works of Cowper and Thompson: Including Many Letters and Poems Never Before Published in this Country. With a New and Interesting Memoir of the Life of Thomson”, p.104

You May Also Like: