Quote

Unless a love of virtue light the flame, Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame He hides behind a magisterial air He own offences, and strips others' bare.

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
Virtue
Flame
Others
Flames
Magisterial
Light
Brands
Offences
Love
Blame
Strips
Air
Offence
Behinds
Hides
Unless
Satire
Behind
Bare

More quotes by William Cowper

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All we behold is miracle.
William Cowper
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Grief is itself a medicine.
William Cowper
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Religion, if in heavenly truths attired, Needs only to be seen to be admired.
William Cowper
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...So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
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Learning itself, received into a mind By nature weak, or viciously inclined, Serves but to lead philosophers astray, Where children would with ease discern the way.
William Cowper
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When scandal has new-minted an old lie, Or tax'd invention for a fresh supply, 'Tis call'd a satire, and the world appears Gathering around it with erected ears A thousand names are toss'd into the crowd, Some whisper'd softly, and some twang'd aloud, Just as the sapience of an author's brain, Suggests it safe or dangerous to be plain.
William Cowper
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There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.
William Cowper
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A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about.
William Cowper
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Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.
William Cowper
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He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not color'd like his own, and having pow'r T' enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.
William Cowper
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Blest be the art that can immortalize.
William Cowper
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It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.
William Cowper
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How! leap into the pit our life to save? To save our life leap all into the grave.
William Cowper
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Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse, Not more distinct from harmony divine The constant creaking of a country sign.
William Cowper
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Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.
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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All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil.
William Cowper
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Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.
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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Fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.
William Cowper