Quote

God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, and the devil made sin So God made a cole-pit to put the devil in.

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
Men
Bees
Providence
Honey
Devil
Sin
Pride
Money
Cole
Made
Pits

More quotes by William Cowper

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Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound.
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An idler is a watch that wants both hands As useless if it goes as when it stands.
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And in that hour, The seeds of cruelty, that since have swell'd To such gigantic and enormous growth, Were sown in human nature's fruitful soil. Hence date the persecution and the pain That man inflicts on all inferior kinds, Regardless of their plaints.
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The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow, and when we lie down at night we may safely say to most of our troubles, Ye have done your worst, and we shall see you no more.
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All affectation 'tis my perfect scorn Object of my implacable disgust.
William Cowper
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Grief is itself a medicine.
William Cowper
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Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, / Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost.
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Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.
William Cowper
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I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.
William Cowper
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How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat, whom I may whisper, solitude is sweet.
William Cowper
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That good diffused may more abundant grow.
William Cowper
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The slaves of custom and established mode, With pack-horse constancy we keep the road Crooked or straight, through quags or thorny dells, True to the jingling of our leader's bells.
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Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.
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Defend me, therefore, common sense, say From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up.
William Cowper
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Vice stings us even in our pleasures, but virtue consoles us even in our pains.
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The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue the only lasting treasure, truth.
William Cowper
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Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought.
William Cowper
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Events of all sorts creep or fly exactly as God pleases.
William Cowper
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But poverty, with most who whimper forth Their long complaints, is self-inflicted woe The effect of laziness, or sottish write.
William Cowper
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Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.
William Cowper