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William Cowper Quotes - Page 5

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

God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to performs

God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to performs

Moving, Way, Mysterious

Olney Hymns "Light Shining Out of Darkness" l. 1 (1779)

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour;The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flow’r. Blind unbelief is sure to err And scan His work in vain; God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain.

Sweet, Judging, Grace

'Olney Hymns' (1779) 'Light Shining out of Darkness'

A noisy man is always in the right.

War, Men, Noisy

William Cowper (1826). “Poems. With an introductory essay by J. Montgomery”, p.169

And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most.

Lying, Poet, Boast

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.47

Truth is the golden girdle of the globe.

Golden, Truth Is, Girdles

William Cowper (1872). “Table talk, Truth, Expostulation, Hope, Charity, and other poems”, p.97

O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!

Winter, Years, Inverted

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.220

Tea - the cups that cheer but not inebriate.

Cheer, Tea Drinking, Cups Of Tea

'The Task' (1785) bk. 4 'The Winter Evening' l. 34.

The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick, / whom, snoring, she disturbs.

Sleep, Nurse, Sick

'The Task' (1785) bk. 1 'The Sofa' l. 89

No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.

Cat, Loss, Reflection

"The Works of William Cowper, Esq., Comprising His Poems, Correspondence, and Translations: With a Life of the Author".

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."

Lying, Night, Done

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.

Music, Heart, Air

William Cowper (1822). “The poems of William Cowper”, p.136

What is it but a map of busy life, Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?

Life, Maps, Busy

William COWPER (1835). “The works of his life and letters”, p.37

Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule.

Headstone, Mercy, Shows

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.287

I seem forsaken and alone, / I hear the lion roar; / And every door is shut but one, / And that is Mercy's door.

Loneliness, Doors, Lions

William Cowper (1874). “The poetical works of William Cowper, ed: with notes and biographical introd. by William Benham”, p.33

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.

Prayer, Believe, Proof

William Cowper (1835). “The Works of William Cowper: The life of William Cowper. Letters, 1765-1783”

Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.

Garden, Greenhouses, Gardening

William Cowper (1810). “The Task: A Poem. In Six Books”, p.89

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.

Color, Skins, Slavery

William Cowper (1857). “The Poetical Works of William Cowper, Esq: Of the Inner Temple”, p.198

The rich are too indolent, the poor too weak, to bear the insupportable fatigue of thinking.

Thinking, Bears, Rich

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa around, 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 evening in

Cheer, Fall, Fire

'The Task' (1785) bk. 4 'The Winter Evening' l. 34.

Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.

Time, Guests, Fit

William Cowper, Robert Southey (1854). “The Works of William Cowper: Letters, 1788-1799. Papers in the Connoisseur. Letter from an owl to a bird of paradise. Fragment of an intended commentary on Paradise lost. Account of the treatment of his hares”, p.334

Where penury is felt the thought is chain'd, And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few.

Sweet, Poverty, Pleasure

William Cowper, James Sambrook (2016). “William Cowper: The Task and Selected Other Poems”, p.185, Routledge

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

Judging, Grace, Frowning

William Cowper (1851). “The Works of William Cowper: His Life, Letters, and Poems. Now First Completed by the Introduction of Cowper's Private Correspondence”, p.671

Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.

Life, Children, Men

'Hope' (1782) l. 127

Fate steals along with silent tread, Found oftenest in what least we dread; Frowns in the storm with angry brow, But in the sunshine strikes the blow.

Sunshine, Fate, Blow

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.118

Remorse begets reform.

Reform, Begets, Remorse

William Cowper (1819). “Poems, etc”, p.331

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