Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
William Cowper
216 quotes
“Our wasted oil unprofitably burns, Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That good diffused may more abundant grow.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But that disease when soberly defined Is the false fire of an o'erheated mind.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But Conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs, Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The disencumbered Atlas of the state.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Line 394 (1782)
“He likes the country, but in truth must own, Most likes it, when he studies it in town.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Line 573 (1782)
“A business with an income at its heels Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless when it goes as when it stands.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Built God a church, and laugh'd his word to scorn.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Philologists, who chase A panting syllable through time and space, Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark, To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Till authors hear at length, one general cry, Tickle and entertain us, or we die!The loud demand from year to year the same, Beggars invention and makes fancy lame.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I praise the Frenchman, his remark was shrewd — How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat Whom I may whisper — solitude is sweet.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute; From the center all round to the sea I am lord of the fowl and the brute.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms Than reign in this horrible place.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Society friendship and love Divinely bestow'd upon man, O had I the wings of a dove How soon I would taste you again!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion! what treasure untold Resides in that heavenly word!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My friends, do they now and then send A wish or a thought after me? O tell me I yet have a friend, Though a friend I am never to see.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is mercy in every place, And mercy, encouraging thought! Gives even affliction a grace And reconciles man to his lot.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the sound of the church-going bell These valleys and rocks never heard; Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell, Or smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“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.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown, A train-band captain eke was he, Of famous London town.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My sister, and my sister’s child, Myself, and children three, Will fill the chaise; so you must ride On horseback after we.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O'erjoyed was he to find That, though on pleasure she was bent, She had a frugal mind.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul cried out, "Well done!" As loud as he could bawl.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A hat not much the worse for wear.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now let us sing — Long live the king, And Gilpin, long live he; And, when he next doth ride abroad, May I be there to see!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Forced from home and all its pleasures Afric's coast I left forlorn, To increase a stranger's treasures O'er the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, Paid my price in paltry gold; But, though slave they have enrolled me, Minds are never to be sold.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fleecy locks and black complexion Cannot forfeit nature's claim; Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in white and black the same.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Deem our nation brutes no longer, Till some reason ye shall find Worthier of regard and stronger Than the colour of our kind.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prove that you have human feelings, Ere you proudly question ours!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Survivor sole, and hardly such, of all that once lived here”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seems idolatry with some excuse, When our forefather Druids in their oaks Imagined sanctity.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thou wast a bauble once; a cup and ball, Which babes might play with; and the thievish jay Seeking her food, with ease might have purloined The auburn nut that held thee, swallowing down Thy yet close-folded latitude of boughs And all thine embryo vastness at a gulp. But fate thy growth decreed.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So Fancy dreams. Disprove it, if ye can, Ye reasoners broad awake, whose busy search Of argument, employed too oft amiss, Sifts half the pleasures of short life away!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus may the terror of the Lord make a Pharisee, but only the sweet voice of mercy in the Gospel can make a Christian.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jeffrey, David L. (ed.) A Burning and a shining light: English spirituality in the age of Wesley. Eerdmans, 1987. p. 465.
“if I am not conqueror, yet I am not overcome.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jeffrey, David L. (ed.) A Burning and a shining light: English spirituality in the age of Wesley. Eerdmans, 1987. p. 466.
“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.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Iliad of Homer: translated into English blank verse (1791) preface
“As when around the clear bright moon, the stars Shine in full splendor, and the winds are hush'd, The groves, the mountain-tops, the headland-heights Stand all apparent, not a vapor streaks The boundless blue, but ether open'd wide All glitters, and the shepherd's heart is cheer'd.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Iliad of Homer: translated into English blank verse (1791) bk. 8, l. 643
“My soul Shall bear that also; for, by practice taught, I have learned patience, having much endured.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Odyssey of Homer: translated into English blank verse (1791) bk. 5, l. 264
“He that holds fast the golden mean, And lives contentedly between The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a bird who by his coat, And by the hoarseness of his note, Might be supposed a crow.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He sees that this great roundabout The world, with all its motley rout, Church, army, physic, law, Its customs and its businesses, Is no concern at all of his, And says—what says he?—Caw.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A kick that scarce would move a horse May kill a sound divine.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And the tear that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it come to light, In every cranny but the right.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But strive still to be a man before your mother.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source