Quote

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

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
Waiting
Meanest
Country
Cottages
Palaces
Scorn
Humble
Wait
Proud
Sleep

More quotes by Abraham Cowley

Image
Poets by Death are conquer'd but the wit Of poets triumphs over it.
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
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
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
Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal Now does always last.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Nothing in Nature's sober found, But an eternal Health goes round. Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high-- Fill all the Glasses there for why Should every Creature Drink but I? Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?
Abraham Cowley
Image
Curiosity does, no less than devotion, pilgrims make.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Hope is the most hopeless thing of all.
Abraham Cowley
Image
For the whole world, without a native home, Is nothing but a prison of larger room.
Abraham Cowley
Image
A mighty pain to love it is, And 'tis a pain that pain to miss But, of all pains, the greatest pain Is to love, but love in vain.
Abraham Cowley
Image
This only grant me, that my means may lie, too low for envy, for contempt to high.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Plenty, as well as Want, can separate friends.
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
I would not fear nor wish my fate, but boldly say each night, to-morrow let my sun his beams display, or in clouds hide them I have lived today.
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
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
Come, my best Friends! my Books! and lead me on.
Abraham Cowley
Image
Who that has reason, and his smell, Would not among roses and jasmin dwell?
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