Quote

May I a small house and large garden have And a few friends, And many books, both true.

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
May
Gardening
Book
Garden
Many
Large
Small
Books
Friends
House
True

More quotes by Abraham Cowley

Image
Vain, weak-built isthmus, which dost proudly rise Up between two eternities!
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
Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal Now does always last.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Who that has reason, and his smell, Would not among roses and jasmin dwell?
Abraham Cowley
Image
Much will always wanting be To him who much desires.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Thus each extreme to equal danger tends, Plenty, as well as Want, can sep'rate friends.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces, and yet so humble too as not to scorn the meanest country cottages.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Ah! Wretched and too solitary he who loves not his own company.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Lukewarmness I account a sin, as great in love as in religion.
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
When Israel was from bondage led,Led by the Almighty's handFrom out of foreign land,The great sea beheld and fled.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Ah, yet, e'er I descend to th' grave, May I a small House and a large Garden have. And a few Friends, and many Books both true, Both wise, and both delightful too. And since Love ne'er will from me flee, A mistress moderately fair, And good as Guardian angels are, Only belov'd and loving me.
Abraham Cowley
Image
All this world's noise appears to me a dull, ill-acted comedy!
Abraham Cowley
Image
Books should, not Business, entertain the Light And Sleep, as undisturb'd as Death, the Night.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Hope is the most hopeless thing of all.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Stones of small worth may lie unseen by day, But night itself does the rich gem betray.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Curs'd be that wretch (Death's factor sure) who brought Dire swords into the peaceful world, and taught Smiths (who before could only make The spade, the plough-share, and the rake) Arts, in most cruel wise Man's left to epitomize!
Abraham Cowley
Image
Does not the passage of Moses and the Israelites into the Holy Land yield incomparably more poetic variety than the voyages of Ulysses or Aeneas?
Abraham Cowley
Image
We may talk what we please, he cries in his enthusiasm for the oldest of the arts, of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles, in fields d'or or d'argent but, if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms.
Abraham Cowley