Quote

A life all turbulence and noise may seem To him that leads it wise and to be praised, But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still waters.

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
May
Seem
Pearl
Life
Wise
Pearls
Wisdom
Waters
Water
Sought
Success
Noise
Stills
Leads
Seems
Rivers
Turbulence
Still
Rain
Praised

More quotes by William Cowper

Image
And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most.
William Cowper
Image
Strength may wield the ponderous spade, May turn the clod, and wheel the compost home But elegance, chief grace the garden shows, And most attractive, is the fair result Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.
William Cowper
Image
Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home.
William Cowper
Image
Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books.
William Cowper
Image
O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
William Cowper
Image
In a fleshly tomb, I am buried above ground.
William Cowper
Image
Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days The scene is touching, and the heart is stone, That feels not at that sight, and feels at none.
William Cowper
Image
When I thinkof my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair.
William Cowper
Image
The Cross! There, and there only (though the deist rave, and the atheist, if Earth bears so base a slave) There and there only, is the power to save.
William Cowper
Image
To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.
William Cowper
Image
Twere better to be born a stone Of ruder shape, and feeling none, Than with a tenderness like mine And sensibilities so fine! Ah, hapless wretch! condemn'd to dwell Forever in my native shell, Ordained to move when others please, Not for my own content or ease But toss'd and buffeted about, Now in the water and now out.
William Cowper
Image
Heaven speed the canvas, gallantly unfurl'd, To furnish and accommodate a world, To give the Pole the produce of the sun, And knit the unsocial climates into one.
William Cowper
Image
Solitude, seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave a sepulchre in which the living lie, where all good qualities grow sick and die
William Cowper
Image
Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound.
William Cowper
Image
Made poetry a mere mechanic art.
William Cowper
Image
Trials make the promise sweet, Trials give new life to prayer Trials bring me to His feet, Lay me low, and keep me there.
William Cowper
Image
Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.
William Cowper
Image
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.
William Cowper
Image
She that asks Her dear five hundred friends, contemns them all, And hates their coming.
William Cowper
Image
Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart To modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art.
William Cowper