Quote

An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will turn aside and let the reptile live.

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
Public
Aside
Turns
Crush
May
Evening
Inadvertent
Live
Step
Forewarned
Steps
Crawls
Turn
Reptile
Humanity
Reptiles
Path
Snail

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They fix attention, heedless of your pain, With oaths like rivets forced into the brain And e'en when sober truth prevails throughout, They swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt.
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A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
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Great offices will have great talents.
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Necessity invented stools, Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs, And luxury the accomplish'd Sofa last.
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I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.
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Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.
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The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away.
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When I thinkof my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair.
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The solemn fop significant and budge A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge
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Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.
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Fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.
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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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Far happier are the dead methinks than they who look for death and fear it every day.
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The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow.
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Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam.
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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.
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There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
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No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.
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How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.
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In the vast, and the minute, we see The unambiguous footsteps of the God, Who gives its lustre to an insect's wing And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds.
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