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But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.
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
Must
Distant
Coast
Breath
Oars
Breaths
Oar
Reach
Swell
Alone
Prevail
Heaven
Toil
Lost
Sail
More quotes by William Cowper
But poverty, with most who whimper forth Their long complaints, is self-inflicted woe The effect of laziness, or sottish write.
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There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.
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This fond attachment to the well-known place Whence first we started into life's long race, Maintains its hold with such unfailing sway, We feel it e'en in age, and at our latest day.
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A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can.
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A Christian's wit is offensive light, A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight Vig'rous in age as in the flush of youth, 'Tis always active on the side of truth.
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In a fleshly tomb, I am buried above ground.
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Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.
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Great offices will have great talents, and God gives to every man the virtue, temper, understanding, taste, that lifts him into life, and lets him fall just in the niche he was ordained to fill.
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Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary, and therefore take care to be constantly employed. . . . When I can find no other occupation, I think and when I think, I am very apt to do it in rhyme.
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Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.
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Our love is principle, and has its root In reason, is judicious, manly, free.
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God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction.
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The solemn fop significant and budge A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge
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There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart he does not feel for man.
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Religion does not censure or exclude Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.
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Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace.
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To impute our recovery to medicine, and to carry our view no further, is to rob God of His honor, and is saying in effect that He has parted with the keys of life and death, and, by giving to a drug the power to heal us, has placed our lives out of His own reach.
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Misery still delights to trace Its semblance in another's case.
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His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home.
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The man that hails you Tom or Jack, and proves by thumps upon your back how he esteems your merit, is such a friend, that one had need be very much his friend indeed to pardon or to bear it.
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