William Cowper
Religion, richest favor of the skies.Collection: Sky
Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame,--all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love.Collection: Titles
All truth is precious, if not all divine; and what dilates the powers must needs refine.Collection: Truth
Made poetry a mere mechanic art.Collection: Art
We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder lean.Collection: Sacrifice
Spare feast! a radish and an egg.Collection: Eggs
Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.Collection: Giving
Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.Collection: Dust
Thieves at home must hang; but he that puts Into his overgorged and bloated purse The wealth of Indian provinces, escapes.Collection: Home
But many a crime deemed innocent on earth Is registered in Heaven; and these no doubt Have each their record, with a curse annex'd.Collection: Heaven
Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.Collection: Giving
It is a terrible thought, that nothing is ever forgotten; that not an oath is ever uttered that does not continue to vibrate through all times, in the wide spreading current of sound; that not a prayer is lisped, that its record is not to be found stCollection: Prayer
All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil.Collection: Men
The few that pray at all pray oft amiss.Collection: Prayer
Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd.Collection: Men
A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion; a temper passionate and fierce may suddenly your joys disperse at one immense explosion.Collection: Joy
England with all thy faults, I love thee still-- My country! and, while yet a nook is left Where English minds and manners may be found, Shall be constrained to love thee.Collection: Country
Habits are soon assumed; but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.Collection: Alive
Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze.Collection: Spring
Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy.Collection: Simplicity
Built God a church and laughed His word to scorn.Collection: Church
How readily we wish time spent revoked, that we might try the ground again where once--through inexperience, as we now perceive--we missed that happiness we might have found!Collection: Past
Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.Collection: Dream
Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention.Collection: Gossip
Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds you so much dread Are big with mercy and shall break, With blessings on your headCollection: Blessing
I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.Collection: Pain
A noisy man is always in the right.Collection: War
O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturbed Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.Collection: Retirement
Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse, Not more distinct from harmony divine The constant creaking of a country sign.Collection: Country
Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall.Collection: Country
Greece, sound, thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name, But England's Milton equals both in fame.Collection: Rome
England, with all thy faults I love thee still, My country!Collection: Love
But animated nature sweeter still, to soothe and satisfy the human ear.Collection: Loss
A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feeling, will thrust a dagger at your breast, and say he wounded you in jest, by way of balm for healing.Collection: Healing
Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.Collection: Men
Lived in his saddle, loved the chase, the course, And always, ere he mounted, kiss'd his horse.Collection: Horse