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William Cowper
216 quotes
“No dancing bear was so genteel Or half so dégagé.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1752 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Of Himself", l. 31 (wr. 1752; pub. 1825)
“Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1757 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hope, like the short-lived ray", l. 35 (wr. c. 1757; pub. 1825)
“Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1774 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion", st. 2 (wr. c. 1774; pub. 1816)
“Man disobeys, and deity disowns me.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1774 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion", st. 3 (wr. c. 1774; pub. 1816)
“But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1779 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Human Frailty", l. 21 (1779)
“Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1779 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Rev. William Unwin (31 October 1779) on Dr. Johnson's criticism of Paradise Lost
“Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, While meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Doves", l. 1 (1780)
“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.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Fable", l. 36 (1780)
“'Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Fable", Moral (1780)
“Regions Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway; Where his eagles never flew, None invincible as they.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boadicea", st. 8 (1782)
“Ruffians, pitiless as proud, Heaven awards the vengeance due; Empire is on us bestowed, Shame and ruin wait for you.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Boadicea", st. 11 (1782)
“Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade, Apt emblem of a virtuous maid Silent and chaste she steals along, Far from the world's gay busy throng: With gentle yet prevailing force, Intent upon her destined course; Graceful and useful all she does, Blessing and blest where'er she goes; Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass, And Heaven reflected in her face.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To a Young Lady" (1782)
“Candid, and generous, and just, Boys care but little whom they trust, An error soon corrected— For who but learns in riper years That man, when smoothest he appears Is most to be suspected?”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Friendship", l. 19 (1782)
“Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a Letter to the Rev. Mr. Newton", l. 21 (1782)
“Grief is itself a med'cine.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charity", l. 159 (1782)
“Canst thou, and honour’d with a Christian name, Buy what is woman-born, and feel no shame? Trade in the blood of innocence, and plead Expedience as a warrant for the deed? So may the wolf, whom famine has made bold To quit the forest and invade the fold: So may the ruffian, who with ghostly glide, Dagger in hand, steals close to your bedside; Not he, but his emergence forced the door, He found it inconvenient to be poor.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charity", l. 180 (1782)
“When one that holds communion with the skies Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise, And once more mingles with us meaner things, 'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charity", l. 435 (1782)
“True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charity", l. 573 (1782)
“Let Charity forgive me a mistake, That zeal, not vanity, has chanced to make, And spare the poet for his subject’s sake.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charity", l. 634 (1782)
“Thousands, careless of the damning sin, Kiss the book's outside who ne'er look within.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Expostulation", l. 388 (1782)
“The man that hails you Tom or Jack, And proves, by thumping on your back, His sense of your great merit, Is such a friend that one had need Be very much his friend indeed To pardon or to bear it.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Friendship", l. 169 (1782)
“Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hope", l. 127 (1782)
“Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hope", l. 316 (1782)
“And differing judgments serve but to declare, That truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hope", l. 423 (1782)
“A knave, when tried on honesty's plain rule, And, when by that of reason, a mere fool.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hope" (1782)
“Oh, fond attempt to give a deathless lot To names ignoble, born to be forgot!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Observing Some Names of Little Note Recorded in the Biographica Britannica" (1782)
“There goes the parson, O illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Observing Some Names of Little Note Recorded in the Biographica Britannica" (1782)
“He has no hope that never had a fear.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Truth", l. 298 (1782)
“Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,— A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Truth", l. 327 (1782)
“The sounding jargon of the schools.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Truth", l. 367 (1782)
“But what is man in his own proud esteem? Hear him, himself the poet and the theme; A monarch clothed with majesty and awe, His mind his kingdom and his will his law.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Truth", l. 403 (1782)
“Old Tiney, the surliest of his kind! Who, nursed with tender care, And to domestic bounds confined, Was still a wild Jack hare.Though duly from my hand he took His pittance every night, He did it with a jealous look; And, when he could, would bite.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1783 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epitaph on a Hare", sts. 2 and 3 (wr. 1783; pub. 1784)
“Our severest winter, commonly called the spring.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1783 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Rev. William Unwin (8 June 1783)
“I believe no man was ever scolded out of his sins.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1783 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Rev. John Newton (17 June 1783)
“Mr. Grenville squeezed me by the hand again, kissed the ladies, and withdrew. He kissed likewise the maid in the kitchen, and seemed upon the whole a most loving, kissing, kind-hearted gentleman.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Rev. John Newton (29 March 1784)
“The poplars are felled, farewell to the shade And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Poplar-Field" (wr. 1784)
“An honest man, close-buttoned to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epistle to Joseph Hill", l. 62 (1785)
“But truths on which depends our main concern, That 'tis our shame and mistery not to learn, Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a luster, he that runs may read.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tirocinium", l. 77 (1785)
“Public schools 'tis public folly feeds.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tirocinium", l. 250 (1785)
“The parson knows enough who knows a duke.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tirocinium", l. 403 (1785)
“Behold your bishop! well he plays his part, Christian in name, and infidel in heart, Ghostly in office, earthly in his plan, A slave at court, elsewhere a lady’s man. Dumb as a senator, and as a priest A piece of mere church furniture at best.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tirocinium", l. 421 (1785)
“Tenants of life’s middle state, Securely placed between the small and great.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1785 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tirocinium", l. 807 (1785)
“A worm is in the bud of youth, And at the root of age.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1787 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stanzas subjoined to a Bill of Mortality" (1787)
“Toll for the brave — The brave! that are no more; All sunk beneath the wave, Fast by their native shore!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Loss of the Royal George", st. 1 (wr. 1782; pub. 1791)
“And still to love, though prest with ill, In wintry age to feel no chill, With me is to be lovely still, My Mary!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Mary", st. 11 (1791)
“Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1793 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Rev. John Johnson (29 September 1793)
“My dog! what remedy remains, Since, teach you all I can, I see you, after all my pains, So much resemble man!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1793 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On a Spaniel called Beau, killing a young bird (wr. 1793)
“Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day (Live till tomorrow) will have passed away.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Needless Alarm", Moral, l. 132 (1794)
“Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry — Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pairing Time Anticipated", Moral (c. 1794)
“I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau, If birds confabulate or no.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1795 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Passing Time Anticipated" (1795)