William Cowper
A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct; The language plain, and incidents well link'd; Tell not as new what ev'ry body knows; and, new or old, still hasten to a close.Collection: Links
I have a kitten,the drollest of all creatures that ever wore a cat's skin.Collection: Cat
I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.Collection: Sound
No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.Collection: Tree
Some to the fascination of a name, Surrender judgment hoodwinked.Collection: Names
And diff'ring judgments serve but to declare that truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where.Collection: Truth
For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes to light, In every cranny but the right.Collection: Loss
His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home.Collection: Home
They best can judge a poet's worth, Who oft themselves have known The pangs of a poetic birth By labours of their own.Collection: Judging
Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home; He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam.Collection: Home
Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one.Collection: Enemy
A story, in which native humour reigns, Is often useful, always entertains; A graver fact, enlisted on your side, May furnish illustration, well applied; But sedentary weavers of long tales Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails.Collection: Illustration
If a great man struggling with misfortunes is a noble object, a little man that despises them is no contemptible one.Collection: Struggle
Where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown.Collection: Art
Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill.Collection: War
Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time.Collection: Time
The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue.Collection: Art
He that runs may read.Collection: Running
But, oh, Thou bounteous Giver of all good, Thou art, of all Thy gifts, Thyself thy crown!Collection: God
Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought.Collection: Dignity
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
But truths on which depends our main concern, That ’tis our shame and misery not to learn, Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a lustre he that runs may read.Collection: Reading