William Cowper
A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can.Collection: Moral
Not to understand a treasure's worth till time has stole away the slighted good, is cause of half the poverty we feel, and makes the world the wilderness it is.Collection: Goodbye
The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.Collection: Men
Most satirists are indeed a public scourge; Their mildest physic is a farrier's purge; Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr'd, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, By lean despair upon an empty purse.Collection: Despair
Sends Nature forth the daughter of the skies... To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.Collection: Daughter
The kindest and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear; And something, every day they live, To pity, and perhaps forgive.Collection: Forgiving
Heaven's harmony is universal love.Collection: Religious
There is mercy in every place. And mercy, encouraging thought gives even affliction a grace and reconciles man to his lot.Collection: Men
Would I describe a preacher, I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste, And natural in gesture; much impress'd Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too; affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men.Collection: Simple
And the tear that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.Collection: Tears
Great offices will have great talents, and God gives to every man the virtue, temper, understanding, taste, that lifts him into life, and lets him fall just in the niche he was ordained to fill.Collection: Fall
We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works die too.Collection: Death
Blest be the art that can immortalize,--the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim to quench it.Collection: Art
...So let us welcome peaceful evening in.Collection: Night
Events of all sorts creep or fly exactly as God pleases.Collection: Events
The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth.Collection: Inspirational
I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?Collection: Slavery
Books are not seldom talismans and spells.Collection: Book
God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction.Collection: Judging
God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to performsCollection: Moving
And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most.Collection: Lying
The proud are ever most provoked by pride.Collection: Pride
Truth is the golden girdle of the globe.Collection: Golden
O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!Collection: Winter
The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick, / whom, snoring, she disturbs.Collection: Sleep
No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.Collection: Cat
Tea - the cups that cheer but not inebriate.Collection: Cheer
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."Collection: Lying
I am out of humanity's reach.I must finish my journey alone,Never hear the sweet music of speech;I start at the sound of my own.Collection: Sweet
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.Collection: Music
I seem forsaken and alone, / I hear the lion roar; / And every door is shut but one, / And that is Mercy's door.Collection: Loneliness
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.Collection: Prayer
The rich are too indolent, the poor too weak, to bear the insupportable fatigue of thinking.Collection: Thinking
Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.Collection: Time
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 inCollection: Cheer
Remorse begets reform.Collection: Reform
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.Collection: Judging
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.Collection: Sunshine
The still small voice is wanted.Collection: Voice
[My kitten's] gambols are not to be described, and would be incredible, if they could.Collection: Cat