Quotes by Cowper, William

"Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees."

Cowper, William on evil   

"No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed."

Cowper, William on enthusiasm   

"How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home."

Cowper, William on experts   

"Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind."

Cowper, William on fanatics and fanaticism   

"The man that hails you Tom or Jack, and proves by thumps upon your back how he esteems your merit, is such a friend, that one had need be very much his friend indeed to pardon or to bear it."

Cowper, William on friends and friendship   

"Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt."

Cowper, William on glory
4 fans of this quote   

"Visitors are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not visit, would do nothing."

Cowper, William on guests   

"The darkest day, If you live till tomorrow will have past away."

Cowper, William on hope
27 fans of this quote   

"The life of ease is a difficult pursuit."

Cowper, William on idleness   

"Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me."

Cowper, William on insanity   

"Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more."

Cowper, William on knowledge   

"Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; Wisdom is humble that it knows no more."

Cowper, William on knowledge
4 fans of this quote   

"A life of ease is a difficult pursuit."

Cowper, William on life   

"O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?"

Cowper, William on applause   

"God made the country and man made the town."

Cowper, William on nations   

"Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God."

Cowper, William on nature   

"A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator."

Cowper, William on pride   

"It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme rudely appealed to on each trifling theme."

Cowper, William on profanity   

"Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose."

Cowper, William on purpose   

"Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose."

Cowper, William on purpose   

"Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid."

Cowper, William on regret   

"Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word!"

Cowper, William on religion   

"Remorse begets reform."

Cowper, William on remorse   

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed."

Cowper, William on rest   

"No one was ever scolded out of their sins."

Cowper, William on sin   

"Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger's treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold; but, though theirs they have enroll'd me, minds are never to be sold."

Cowper, William on slavery   

"I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?"

Cowper, William on slavery   

"Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore."

Cowper, William on solitude
3 fans of this quote   

"The path of sorrow and that path alone, leads to a land where sorrow is unknown."

Cowper, William on sorrow   

"A fool must now and then be right, by chance."

Cowper, William on chance   

"Once more I would adopt the graver style -- a teacher should be sparing of his smile."

Cowper, William on teacher   

"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."

Cowper, William on temper   

"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?"

Cowper, William on trust   

"Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend."

Cowper, William on truth   

"Variety's the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor."

Cowper, William on variety   

"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."

Cowper, William on wit   

"Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair."

Cowper, William on absence
18 fans of this quote   

"Absence of proof is not proof of absence."

Cowper, William on absence
8 fans of this quote   

"The parson knows enough who knows a Duke."

Cowper, William on churches   

"Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will."

Cowper, William on passion