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Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.


William Cowper

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More William Cowper

Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.
WILLIAM COWPER Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties...
WILLIAM COWPER 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are w...
WILLIAM COWPER Hast thou not learn'd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, Tha...
WILLIAM COWPER The only amarantine flower on earth Is virtue.
WILLIAM COWPER Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilarate the spirit, and restore The tone of langu...
WILLIAM COWPER Nature, exerting an unwearied power, Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower; Spreads th...
WILLIAM COWPER Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
WILLIAM COWPER Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart Must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
WILLIAM COWPER Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene...
WILLIAM COWPER He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks; ...
WILLIAM COWPER How shall I speak thee, or thy power address Thou God of our idolatry, the Press. . . . . ...
WILLIAM COWPER Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love.
WILLIAM COWPER He who finds thought that lets us penetrate even a little deeper into the eternal mystery of nature...
WILLIAM COWPER Domestic Happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that hast survived the Fall!
WILLIAM COWPER Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose.
WILLIAM COWPER The man that hails you Tom or Jack, And proves by thumps upon your back How he esteems your me...
WILLIAM COWPER Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And learning wiser grow without his books...
WILLIAM COWPER How much a dunce that has been sent to roam Excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
WILLIAM COWPER True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd.
WILLIAM COWPER A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
WILLIAM COWPER O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
WILLIAM COWPER God made the country and man made the town.
WILLIAM COWPER Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
WILLIAM COWPER The life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
WILLIAM COWPER A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion; a temp...
WILLIAM COWPER The man that hails you Tom or Jack, and proves by thumps upon your back how he esteems your merit, i...
WILLIAM COWPER A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feeling, will ...
WILLIAM COWPER The darkest day, If you live till tomorrow will have past away.
WILLIAM COWPER Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.
WILLIAM COWPER No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.
WILLIAM COWPER Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and ...
WILLIAM COWPER Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; Wisdom is humble that it knows no more.
WILLIAM COWPER Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.
WILLIAM COWPER Unless a love of virtue light the flame,
Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame;
He ...
WILLIAM COWPER The path of sorrow and that path alone, leads to a land where sorrow is unknown.
WILLIAM COWPER Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger's treasu...
WILLIAM COWPER I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?
WILLIAM COWPER Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
WILLIAM COWPER Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.
WILLIAM COWPER Remorse begets reform.
WILLIAM COWPER How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
WILLIAM COWPER It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.
WILLIAM COWPER Variety is the very spice of life that gives it all its flavour.
WILLIAM COWPER I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute on;
but I wish that I coul...
WILLIAM COWPER Candid and generous and just. Boys care but little whom they trust. An error soon corrected -- for w...
WILLIAM COWPER Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps he...
WILLIAM COWPER God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the ...
WILLIAM COWPER You told me, I remember, glory, built
On selfish principles, is shame and guilt;
The deeds th...
WILLIAM COWPER Visitors are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not visit, would ...
WILLIAM COWPER Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind.
WILLIAM COWPER A fool must now and then be right, by chance.
WILLIAM COWPER Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
WILLIAM COWPER Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
WILLIAM COWPER Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness c...
WILLIAM COWPER Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.
WILLIAM COWPER The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.
WILLIAM COWPER When his wife asked him to change clothes to meet the German Ambassador: "If they want to see me, ...
WILLIAM COWPER If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ...
WILLIAM COWPER Dress drains our cellar dry, And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires And introduces hung...
WILLIAM COWPER Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
WILLIAM COWPER But conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should fl...
WILLIAM COWPER Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And...
WILLIAM COWPER Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.
WILLIAM COWPER Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.
WILLIAM COWPER God made the country, and man made the town.
WILLIAM COWPER Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own.
WILLIAM COWPER Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word!
WILLIAM COWPER The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.
WILLIAM COWPER No one was ever scolded out of their sins.
WILLIAM COWPER With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spad...
WILLIAM COWPER Toil for the brave! The brave that are no more.
WILLIAM COWPER But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell t...
WILLIAM COWPER I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the ma...
WILLIAM COWPER The church-going bell.
WILLIAM COWPER How soft the music of those village bells, Falling at interval upon the ear In cadence sweet; ...
WILLIAM COWPER So that the jest is clearly to be seen, Not in the words--but in the gap between; Manner is al...
WILLIAM COWPER Habits of close attention, thinking heads, Become more rare as dissipation spreads, Till autho...
WILLIAM COWPER None but an author knows an author's cares, Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears.
WILLIAM COWPER As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon.
WILLIAM COWPER O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, F...
WILLIAM COWPER I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute, From the centre all round to ...
WILLIAM COWPER Words pregnant with celestial fire.
WILLIAM COWPER Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled int...
WILLIAM COWPER Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.
WILLIAM COWPER An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. But he that...
WILLIAM COWPER Silently as a dream the fabric rose; No sound of hammer or of saw was there.
WILLIAM COWPER Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish w...
WILLIAM COWPER Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention.
WILLIAM COWPER Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze.
WILLIAM COWPER Now let us sing, long live the king.
WILLIAM COWPER We are his, To serve him nobly in the common cause, True to the death, but not to be his slave...
WILLIAM COWPER If hindrances obstruct the way, Thy magnanimity display. And let thy strength be seen: B...
WILLIAM COWPER And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.
WILLIAM COWPER England with all thy faults, I love thee still-- My country! and, while yet a nook is left Wh...
WILLIAM COWPER O Popular Applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
WILLIAM COWPER And prate and preach about what others prove, As if the world and they were hand and glove.
WILLIAM COWPER He would not, with a peremptory tone, Assert the nose upon his face his own.
WILLIAM COWPER Me therefore studious of laborious ease.
WILLIAM COWPER Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd.
WILLIAM COWPER . . . thieves at home must hang; but he that puts Into his overgorged and bloated purse The we...
WILLIAM COWPER There is in souls a sympathy with sounds.
WILLIAM COWPER The sounding jargon of the schools.
WILLIAM COWPER Seek to delight, that they may mend mankind. And, while they captivate, inform the mind.
WILLIAM COWPER Now stir the fire, and close the shudders fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, A...
WILLIAM COWPER Unless a love of virtue light the flame, Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame; He hi...
WILLIAM COWPER But truths on which depends our main concern, That 'tis our shame and misery not to learn, Shi...
WILLIAM COWPER The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well...
WILLIAM COWPER Once more I would adopt the graver style -- a teacher should be sparing of his smile.
WILLIAM COWPER Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?
WILLIAM COWPER Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home.
WILLIAM COWPER While fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.
WILLIAM COWPER Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.
WILLIAM COWPER When admirals extoll'd for standing still, Of doing nothing with a deal of skill.
WILLIAM COWPER Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful a...
WILLIAM COWPER Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of o...
WILLIAM COWPER How various his employments whom the world Calls idle; and who justly in return Esteems that b...
WILLIAM COWPER An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.
WILLIAM COWPER Where tempests never beat nor billows roar.
WILLIAM COWPER Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.
WILLIAM COWPER Dream after dream ensues; And still they dream that they shall still succeed; And still are di...
WILLIAM COWPER Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.
WILLIAM COWPER An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting
WILLIAM COWPER Glory built on selfish principles is shame and guilt.
WILLIAM COWPER Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.
WILLIAM COWPER Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.
WILLIAM COWPER They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.
WILLIAM COWPER The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul bawled out, Well d...
WILLIAM COWPER A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun, It gives a light to every age, It ...
WILLIAM COWPER Assail'd by scandal and the tongue of strife, His only answer was a blameless life; And he tha...
WILLIAM COWPER Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; T...
WILLIAM COWPER All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence.
WILLIAM COWPER A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
WILLIAM COWPER God moves in mysterious ways
His wonders to performs
WILLIAM COWPER That good diffused may more abundant grow.
WILLIAM COWPER . . . glory built On selfish principles is shame and guilt.
WILLIAM COWPER God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, an...
WILLIAM COWPER Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face.
WILLIAM COWPER 'Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.
WILLIAM COWPER Prison'd in a parlour snug and small, Like bottled wasps upon a southern wall.
WILLIAM COWPER Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousan...
WILLIAM COWPER The priest he merry is, and blithe Three-quarters of a year, But oh! it cuts him like a scyth...
WILLIAM COWPER A kick that scarce would move a horse, May kill a sound divine.
WILLIAM COWPER The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry...
WILLIAM COWPER He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment an...
WILLIAM COWPER Would I describe a preacher, . . . . I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doct...
WILLIAM COWPER I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life, C...
WILLIAM COWPER There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
WILLIAM COWPER Praise enough To fill the ambition of a private man, That Chatham's language was his mother-to...
WILLIAM COWPER He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful; messenger of grief Perhap...
WILLIAM COWPER There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased
Wi...
WILLIAM COWPER Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.
WILLIAM COWPER I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since.
WILLIAM COWPER His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
WILLIAM COWPER Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule.
WILLIAM COWPER What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching...
WILLIAM COWPER Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head...
WILLIAM COWPER O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyme...
WILLIAM COWPER For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes t...
WILLIAM COWPER Our wasted oil unprofitably burns, Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.
WILLIAM COWPER Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you h...
WILLIAM COWPER 'Twere better to be born a stone Of ruder shape, and feeling none, Than with a tenderness like...
WILLIAM COWPER The earth was made so various, that the mind of desultory man, studious of change, and pleased with ...
WILLIAM COWPER . . . Philologists, who chase A painting syllable through time and space Start it at home, and...
WILLIAM COWPER Fast-anchor'd isle.
WILLIAM COWPER Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.
WILLIAM COWPER All learned, and all drunk!
WILLIAM COWPER Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct l...
WILLIAM COWPER A hat not much worse for wear.
WILLIAM COWPER His head, Not yet by time completely silver'd o'er, Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish yo...
WILLIAM COWPER Some to the fascination of a name, Surrender judgment hoodwinked.
WILLIAM COWPER Exactness is the sublimity of fools. [Fr., L'exactitude est le sublime des sots.]
WILLIAM COWPER Defend me, therefore, common sense, say From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping bucke...
WILLIAM COWPER The solemn fog; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.
WILLIAM COWPER Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which e...
WILLIAM COWPER He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.
WILLIAM COWPER The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
WILLIAM COWPER The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is alw...
WILLIAM COWPER Words learned by rote a parrot may rehearse; but talking is not always to converse, not more distinc...
WILLIAM COWPER 'Tis hard if all is false that I advance
A fool must now and then be right, by chance.
WILLIAM COWPER A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
WILLIAM COWPER The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the lands where sorrow is unknown.
WILLIAM COWPER O solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst o...
WILLIAM COWPER Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumour of o...
WILLIAM COWPER I praise the Frenchman; his remark was shrewd,-- "How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude." B...
WILLIAM COWPER A story, in which native humour reigns, Is often useful, always entertains; A graver fact, enl...
WILLIAM COWPER Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse, Not more d...
WILLIAM COWPER Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour.
WILLIAM COWPER The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change And pleased ...
WILLIAM COWPER God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And r...
WILLIAM COWPER His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home.
WILLIAM COWPER Ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touch'd by the Midas finger of ...
WILLIAM COWPER Still ending, and beginning still.
WILLIAM COWPER We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And rang...
WILLIAM COWPER Some boundless contiguity of shade.
WILLIAM COWPER No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.
WILLIAM COWPER Discourse may want an animated "No"To brush the surface, and to make it flow;But still remember, if ...
WILLIAM COWPER Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, / Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass los...
WILLIAM COWPER Spare feast! a radish and an egg.
WILLIAM COWPER I was a stricken deer, that left the herd / Long since.
WILLIAM COWPER