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They best can judge a poet's worth, Who oft themselves have known The pangs of a poetic birth By labours of their own.

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
Birth
Worth
Labours
Known
Pangs
Best
Poetic
Labour
Judge
Judging
Poet

More quotes by William Cowper

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No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.
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I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
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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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Slaves cannot breathe in England if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free They touch our country, and their shackles fall.
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How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
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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.
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Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.
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Truth is the golden girdle of the globe.
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Absence of occupation is not rest.
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Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention.
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Solitude, seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave a sepulchre in which the living lie, where all good qualities grow sick and die
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Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
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Some men make gain a fountain, whence proceeds A stream of liberal and heroic deeds The swell of pity, not to be confined Within the scanty limits of the mind.
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I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fire-side enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturb'd retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted ev'ning, know.
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The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight.
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When nations are to perish in their sins, 'tis in the Church the leprosy begins.
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Religion, richest favor of the skies.
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A life all turbulence and noise may seem To him that leads it wise and to be praised, But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still waters.
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If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one.
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Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.
William Cowper