Quote

A story, in which native humour reigns, Is often useful, always entertains A graver fact, enlisted on your side, May furnish illustration, well applied But sedentary weavers of long tales Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails.

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
Give
Failing
Applied
Graver
May
Side
Fails
Entertains
Wells
Sides
Reign
Weavers
Well
Story
Humour
Enlisted
Giving
Fact
Native
Sedentary
Long
Often
Tales
Furnish
Always
Facts
Useful
Reigns
Stories
Patience
Illustration

More quotes by 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.
William Cowper
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The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight.
William Cowper
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Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy.
William Cowper
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Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in white and black the same.
William Cowper
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Some write a narrative of wars and feats, Of heroes little known, and call the rant A history.
William Cowper
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My soul is sick with every day's report of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled.
William Cowper
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The man to solitude accustom'd long, Perceives in everything that lives a tongue Not animals alone, but shrubs and trees Have speech for him, and understood with ease, After long drought when rains abundant fall, He hears the herbs and flowers rejoicing all.
William Cowper
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Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
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He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, And all are slaves besides.
William Cowper
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A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
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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.
William Cowper
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Remorse begets reform.
William Cowper
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No one was ever scolded out of their sins.
William Cowper
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Thieves at home must hang but he that puts Into his overgorged and bloated purse The wealth of Indian provinces, escapes.
William Cowper
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A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion a temper passionate and fierce may suddenly your joys disperse at one immense explosion.
William Cowper
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Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.
William Cowper
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Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
William Cowper
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And diff'ring judgments serve but to declare that truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where.
William Cowper
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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.
William Cowper
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To trace in Nature's most minute design The signature and stamp of power divine. ... The Invisible in things scarce seen revealed, To whom an atom is an ample field.
William Cowper