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An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting.

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
Sting
Straws
Feeble
Tail
Tails
Stuck
Epigram
Thing
Epigrams
Way
Straw

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No, Freedom has a thousand charms to show That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.
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Defend me, therefore, common sense, say From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up.
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Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.
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Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.
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God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.
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Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought.
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England with all thy faults, I love thee still-- My country! and, while yet a nook is left Where English minds and manners may be found, Shall be constrained to love thee.
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O solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place.
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There is in souls a sympathy with sounds: And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
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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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Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
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Where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown.
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Remorse begets reform.
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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.
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If a great man struggling with misfortunes is a noble object, a little man that despises them is no contemptible one.
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Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.
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There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.
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There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart he does not feel for man.
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The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue the only lasting treasure, truth.
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But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world.
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