William Cowper
Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.Collection: Genius
Solitude, seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave; a sepulchre in which the living lie, where all good qualities grow sick and dieCollection: Lying
'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are weeds without it.Collection: Weed
To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.Collection: Eye
Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.Collection: Blind
With spots quadrangular of diamond form, ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, and spades, the emblems of untimely graves.Collection: Heart
Th' embroid'ry of poetic dreams.Collection: Dream
He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech.Collection: Men
Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.Collection: Providence
As if the world and they were hand and glove.Collection: Hands
How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.Collection: Light
Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made, To turn a penny in the way of trade.Collection: Money
Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule.Collection: Headstone
Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary, and therefore take care to be constantly employed. . . . When I can find no other occupation, I think; and when I think, I am very apt to do it in rhyme.Collection: Men
A teacher should be sparing of his smile.Collection: Education
Twere better to be born a stone Of ruder shape, and feeling none, Than with a tenderness like mine And sensibilities so fine! Ah, hapless wretch! condemn'd to dwell Forever in my native shell, Ordained to move when others please, Not for my own content or ease; But toss'd and buffeted about, Now in the water and now out.Collection: Moving
Though peace be made, yet it's interest that keep peace.Collection: Peace
Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.Collection: Art
There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.Collection: Clerks
Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.Collection: Eagles
The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry hem; and reading what they never wrote Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!Collection: Reading
But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought Of freedom, in that hope itself possess All that the contest calls for; spirit, strength, The scorn of danger, and united hearts, The surest presage of the good they seek.Collection: Heart
Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry-- Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry.Collection: Missing
Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys: Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours.Collection: Weed
Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.Collection: Kindness
Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?Collection: Reason
Lord, it is my chief complaint, That my love is weak and faint; Yet I love thee and adore, Oh for grace to love thee more!Collection: Love
In indolent vacuity of thought.Collection: Vacuity
[My kitten] is dressed in a tortoise-shell suit, and I know you will delight in her.Collection: Cat
We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree.Collection: Self
How soft the music of those village bells, Falling at interval upon the ear In cadence sweet; now dying all away, Now pealing loud again, and louder still, Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on! With easy force it opens all the cells Where Memory slept.Collection: Sweet
Religion, if in heavenly truths attired, Needs only to be seen to be admired.Collection: Religion
It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.Collection: Judgment
Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more.Collection: Knowledge
As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon, So sophistry, cleaves close to, and protects Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects.Collection: Ivy
Strength may wield the ponderous spade, May turn the clod, and wheel the compost home; But elegance, chief grace the garden shows, And most attractive, is the fair result Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.Collection: Strength
Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger's treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold; but, though theirs they have enroll'd me, minds are never to be sold.Collection: Home
Laugh at all you trembled at before.Collection: Laughing
I am out of humanity's reach.Collection: Humanity
There is a mixture of evil in everything we do; indulgence encourages us to encroach, while we Crabbe exercise the rights of children, we become childish.Collection: Children
But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world.Collection: Wise
Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.Collection: Fire
The parable of the prodigal son, the most beautiful fiction that ever was invented; our Saviour's speech to His disciples, with which He closed His earthly ministrations, full of the sublimest dignity and tenderest affection, surpass everything that I ever read; and like the spirit by which they were dictated, fly directly to the heart.Collection: Bible