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Lights of the world, and stars of human race.

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
World
Lights
Stars
Race
Light
Human
Humans

More quotes by William Cowper

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I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.
William Cowper
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Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.
William Cowper
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There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart he does not feel for man.
William Cowper
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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.
William Cowper
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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.
William Cowper
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Blest be the art that can immortalize,--the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim to quench it.
William Cowper
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Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy.
William Cowper
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The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry hem and reading what they never wrote Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!
William Cowper
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The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns The low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown, And sullen sadness, that o'ershade, distort, And mar the face of beauty, when no cause For such immeasurable woe appears These Flora banishes, and gives the fair Sweet smiles, and bloom less transient than her own.
William Cowper
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I have a kitten,the drollest of all creatures that ever wore a cat's skin.
William Cowper
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Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend.
William Cowper
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Solitude, seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave a sepulchre in which the living lie, where all good qualities grow sick and die
William Cowper
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What is it but a map of busy life, Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?
William Cowper
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What is there in the vale of lifeHalf so delightful as a wifeWhen friendship, love and peace combineTo stamp the marriage-bond divine?
William Cowper
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Absence of occupation is not rest A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
William Cowper
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O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!
William Cowper
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All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil.
William Cowper
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E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
William Cowper
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[My kitten] is dressed in a tortoise-shell suit, and I know you will delight in her.
William Cowper
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Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?
William Cowper