Quote

Enjoy the present hour, Be thankful for the past, And neither fear nor wish Th' approaches of the last.

Abraham Cowley

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Abraham Cowley
Age: 49 †
Born: 1618
Born: January 1
Died: 1667
Died: July 28
Essayist
Playwright
Poet
Prosaist
the City
Last
Approaches
Enjoy
Thankful
Wish
Hour
Fear
Neither
Past
Approach
Time
Present
Hours
Lasts

More quotes by Abraham Cowley

Image
What a brave privilege is it to be free from all contentions, from all envying or being envied, from receiving or paying all kinds of ceremonies!
Abraham Cowley
Image
Why dost thou heap up wealth, which thou must quit, Or what is worse, be left by it? Why dost thou load thyself when thou 'rt to fly, Oh, man! ordain'd to die? Why dost thou build up stately rooms on high, Thou who art under ground to lie? Thou sow'st and plantest, but no fruit must see, For death, alas! is reaping thee.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Our yesterday's to-morrow now is gone, And still a new to-morrow does come on. We by to-morrow draw out all our store, Till the exhausted well can yield no more.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Man is too near all kinds of beasts,--a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vulture.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise As praises from the men, whom all men praise.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Life is an incurable disease.
Abraham Cowley
Image
This only grant me, that my means may lie, too low for envy, for contempt to high.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Nay, in death's hand, the grape-stone proves As strong as thunder is in Jove's.
Abraham Cowley
Image
s a scene of changes, and to be constant in Nature were inconstancy.
Abraham Cowley
Image
To-day is ours what do we fear? To-day is ours we have it here. Let's treat it kindly, that it may Wish, at least, with us to stay. Let's banish business, banish sorrow To the gods belong to-morrow.
Abraham Cowley
Image
I confess I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company, and a little feast.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Ah! Wretched and too solitary he who loves not his own company.
Abraham Cowley
Image
The Sunflow'r, thinking 'twas for him foul shame To nap by daylight, strove t' excuse the blame It was not sleep that made him nod, he said, But too great weight and largeness of his head.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Books should, not Business, entertain the Light And Sleep, as undisturb'd as Death, the Night.
Abraham Cowley
Image
The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of government the liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions, as far as may consist with the laws of God and of his country.
Abraham Cowley
Image
All the world's bravery that delights our eyes is but thy several liveries.
Abraham Cowley
Image
There is some help for all the defects of fortune for, if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of them shorter.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Much will always wanting be To him who much desires.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape Who dost in every country change thy shape!
Abraham Cowley