William Cowper
A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about.Collection: Atheism
Happy the man who sees a God employed in all the good and ills that checker life.Collection: Men
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.Collection: Atheist
Restraining prayer, we cease to fight; Prayer keeps the Christian's armor bright; And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.Collection: Christian
Perhaps thou gav'st me, though unseen, a kiss; Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss.Collection: Kissing
Pleasure admitted in undue degree, enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free.Collection: Degrees
How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat, whom I may whisper, solitude is sweet.Collection: Sweet
Alas! if my best Friend, who laid down His life for me, were to remember all the instances in which I have neglected Him, and to plead them against me in judgment, where should I hide my guilty head in the day of recompense? I will pray, therefore, for blessings on my friends, even though they cease to be so, and upon my enemies, though they continue such.Collection: Forgiveness
A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.Collection: Life
In a fleshly tomb, I am buried above ground.Collection: Buried
A fool must now and then be right, by chanceCollection: Truth
Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace.Collection: Wisdom
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.Collection: Rain
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.Collection: War
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.Collection: Get Well
If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one.Collection: Strong
All we behold is miracle.Collection: Miracle
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.Collection: Heart
What is there in the vale of lifeHalf so delightful as a wife;When friendship, love and peace combineTo stamp the marriage-bond divine?Collection: Anniversary
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.Collection: Views
A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun, It gives a light to every age, It gives, but borrows none.Collection: Light
Sin let loose speaks punishment at hand.Collection: Hands
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.Collection: Sleep
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?Collection: Success
The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow.Collection: Care
When from soft love proceeds the deep distress, ah! why forbid the willing tears to flow?Collection: Tears
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!Collection: Sports
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.Collection: Heart
Blest be the art that can immortalize.Collection: Art
... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.Collection: Cat
Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.Collection: Fire
When all within is peace How nature seems to smile Delights that never cease The live-long day beguileCollection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Life
Still ending, and beginning still.Collection: Life
Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.Collection: Sports
What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void The world can never fill.Collection: Sweet
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds.Collection: Music
War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at.Collection: Wise
The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.Collection: Sweet
There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.Collection: Pain
Far happier are the dead methinks than they who look for death and fear it every day.Collection: Death
Absence of occupation is not rest.Collection: Occupation
An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.Collection: Hands
Pleasure is labour too, and tires as much.Collection: Tire
Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons to love it, too.Collection: Love
The only amarantine flower on earth Is virtue.Collection: Flower