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All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil.

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
Constraint
Constraints
Lays
Except
Wisdom
Evil
Men

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Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.
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Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?
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For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes to light, In every cranny but the right.
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The kindest and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear And something, every day they live, To pity, and perhaps forgive.
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We are never more in danger than when we think ourselves most secure, nor in reality more secure than when we seem to be most in danger.
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O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
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Religion does not censure or exclude Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.
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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.
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Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.
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Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.
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Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.
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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.
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To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.
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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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Trials make the promise sweet, Trials give new life to prayer Trials bring me to His feet, Lay me low, and keep me there.
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Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn to increase a stranger's treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold but, though theirs they have enroll'd me, minds are never to be sold.
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The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.
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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.
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Still ending, and beginning still.
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Knowledge is proud that it knows so much wisdom is humble that it knows no more.
William Cowper