Quote

A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feeling, will thrust a dagger at your breast, and say he wounded you in jest, by way of balm for healing.

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
Feeling
Thrust
Scruple
Free
Breast
Repartee
Feelings
Wounded
Dagger
Way
Finest
Renowned
Make
Breasts
Balm
Men
Seldom
Scruples
Healing
Daggers
Friendship
Jest

More quotes by William Cowper

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Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
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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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Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
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God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction.
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Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
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O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!
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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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To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.
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I seem forsaken and alone, / I hear the lion roar / And every door is shut but one, / And that is Mercy's door.
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For when was public virtue to be found Where private was not?
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Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.
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And diff'ring judgments serve but to declare that truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where.
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Our love is principle, and has its root In reason, is judicious, manly, free.
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They love the country, and none else, who seek For their own sake its silence and its shade. Delights which who would leave, that has a heart Susceptible of pity, or a mind Cultured and capable of sober thought.
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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.
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Blest be the art that can immortalize.
William Cowper
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Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons to love it, too.
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All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence.
William Cowper
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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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He that attends to his interior self, That has a heart, and keeps it has a mind That hungers, and supplies it and who seeks A social, not a dissipated life, Has business.
William Cowper