Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
How various his employments whom the world Calls idle and who justly in return Esteems that busy world an idler too!
William Cowper
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
William Cowper
Age: 68 †
Born: 1731
Born: November 26
Died: 1800
Died: April 25
Hymnwriter
Poet
Poet Lawyer
Translator
Writer
Berkhamsted
Hertfordshire
Calls
Esteems
Esteem
Idler
Various
Employments
Busy
Idlers
Return
Justly
World
Idleness
Idle
Employment
More quotes by William Cowper
Pity! Religion has so seldom found A skilful guide into poetic ground! The flowers would spring where'er she deign'd to stray And every muse attend her in her way.
William Cowper
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
Oh, popular applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms? The wisest and the best feel urgent need Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales But swell'd into a gust--who then, alas! With all his canvas set, and inexpert, And therefore, heedless, can withstand thy power?
William Cowper
All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence.
William Cowper
Come, evening, once again, season of peace Return, sweet evening, and continue long! Methinks I see thee in the streaky west, With matron step, slow moving, while the night Treads on thy sweeping train one hand employ'd In letting fall the curtain of repose On bird and beast, the other charged for man With sweet oblivion of the cares of day.
William Cowper
The darkest day, if you live till tomorrow, will have passed away.
William Cowper
A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct The language plain, and incidents well link'd Tell not as new what ev'ry body knows and, new or old, still hasten to a close.
William Cowper
The few that pray at all pray oft amiss.
William Cowper
There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.
William Cowper
A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about.
William Cowper
O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!
William Cowper
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
Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.
William Cowper
We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder lean.
William Cowper
Some drill and bore The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by which we learn, That he who made it, and reveal'd its date To Moses, was mistaken in its age.
William Cowper
No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.
William Cowper
Man in society is like a flow'r, Blown in its native bed. 'Tis there alone His faculties expanded in full bloom Shine out, there only reach their proper use.
William Cowper
O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
William Cowper
He that runs may read.
William Cowper
Most satirists are indeed a public scourge Their mildest physic is a farrier's purge Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr'd, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, By lean despair upon an empty purse.
William Cowper
