Quote

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

William Cowper

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William Cowper
Age: 68 †
Born: 1731
Born: November 26
Died: 1800
Died: April 25
Hymnwriter
Poet
Poet Lawyer
Translator
Writer
Berkhamsted
Hertfordshire
Everything
Strange
Life
Existence
Purpose
Squandering
Happiness
Bargaining
Comes
Bargain
True
Owes
Littles
Bargains
Little
Stewardship

More quotes by William Cowper

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The still small voice is wanted.
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And the tear that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.
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Some people are more nice than wise.
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An idler is a watch that wants both hands As useless if it goes as when it stands.
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Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.
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Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.
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An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will turn aside and let the reptile live.
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The man to solitude accustom'd long, Perceives in everything that lives a tongue Not animals alone, but shrubs and trees Have speech for him, and understood with ease, After long drought when rains abundant fall, He hears the herbs and flowers rejoicing all.
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Absence of occupation is not rest A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
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Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home.
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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.
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The slaves of custom and established mode, With pack-horse constancy we keep the road Crooked or straight, through quags or thorny dells, True to the jingling of our leader's bells.
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Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.
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The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.
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It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.
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Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat, To peep at such a world to see the stir Of the Great Babel, and not feel the crowd.
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We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder lean.
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That good diffused may more abundant grow.
William Cowper
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God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to performs
William Cowper
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Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa around, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in
William Cowper