204 Famous Quotes by William Cowper
11/26/1731 - 4/25/1800
Also Known As:
Cowper, William
Professions:
Information:
About William Cowper
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem Yardley-Oak. He was a nephew of the poet Judith Madan.
Although after being institutionalised for insanity in the period 1763-65, Cowper found refuge in a fervent evangelical Christianity, the inspiration behind his much-loved hymns, he often experienced doubt and after a dream in 1773 believed that he was doomed to eternal damnation. His religious sentiment and association with John Newton led to much of the poetry for which he is best remembered. His poem "Light Shining out of Darkness" gave the English language the idiom "God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform."
Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
Slavery
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Task (bk. II, l. 40)
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The rout is Folly's circle, which she draws
With magic wand. So potent is the spell,
That none decoy'd into that fatal ring,
Unless by Heaven's peculiar grace, escape.
There we grow early gray, but never wise.
Society
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Task (bk. II, l. 627)
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His head,
Not yet by time completely silver'd o'er,
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth,
But strong for service still, and unimpair'd.
Hair
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Task (bk. II, The Timepiece, l. 702)
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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.
Friends
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: On Friendship (169)
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We are his,
To serve him nobly in the common cause,
True to the death, but not to be his slaves.
Service
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Task (bk. V, l. 340)
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I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute,
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
Royalty
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk
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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.
Conversation
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Conversation (l. 703)
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On the summit see,
The seals of office glitter in his eyes;
He climbs, he pants, he grasps them! At his heels,
Close at his heels, a demagogue ascends,
And with a dexterous jerk soon twists him down,
And wins them, but to lose them in his turn.
Ambition
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Task (bk. IV, l. 58)
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Pleasure admitted in undue degree
Enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free.
Pleasure
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Progress of Error (l. 267)
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The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk,
Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk,
Is always happy, reign whoever may,
And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away.
France
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Table Talk (l. 237)
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He who finds thought that lets us penetrate even a little deeper
into the eternal mystery of nature has been granted great grace.
He who, in addition, experiences the recognition, sympathy, and
help of the best minds of his times, had been given almost more
happiness than one man can bear.
Happiness
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Task (bk. III, l. 41)
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How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle; and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too!
Idleness
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Task (bk. III, The Garden, l. 342)
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With spots quadrangular of diamond form,
Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife,
And spades, the emblems of untimely graves.
Cards
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Task (bk. IV, The Winter Evening, l. 217)
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Prison'd in a parlour snug and small,
Like bottled wasps upon a southern wall.
Prison
Quotes, by William Cowper , Source: Retirement (l. 493)
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