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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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

More quotes by William Cowper

Image
Some men make gain a fountain, whence proceeds A stream of liberal and heroic deeds The swell of pity, not to be confined Within the scanty limits of the mind.
William Cowper
Image
Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary, and therefore take care to be constantly employed. . . . When I can find no other occupation, I think and when I think, I am very apt to do it in rhyme.
William Cowper
Image
When all within is peace How nature seems to smile Delights that never cease The live-long day beguile
William Cowper
Image
The beggarly last doit.
William Cowper
Image
A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
William Cowper
Image
Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam.
William Cowper
Image
True modesty is a discerning grace And only blushes in the proper place But counterfeit is blind, and skulks through fear, Where 'tis a shame to be asham'd t' appear: Humility the parent of the first, The last by vanity produc'd and nurs'd.
William Cowper
Image
God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.
William Cowper
Image
There is mercy in every place. And mercy, encouraging thought gives even affliction a grace and reconciles man to his lot.
William Cowper
Image
Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.
William Cowper
Image
Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.
William Cowper
Image
Tea - the cups that cheer but not inebriate.
William Cowper
Image
We are never more in danger than when we think ourselves most secure, nor in reality more secure than when we seem to be most in danger.
William Cowper
Image
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.
William Cowper
Image
For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes to light, In every cranny but the right.
William Cowper
Image
Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.
William Cowper
Image
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart he does not feel for man.
William Cowper
Image
Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.
William Cowper
Image
Strange as it may seem, the most ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood.
William Cowper
Image
Books are not seldom talismans and spells.
William Cowper