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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Unless a love of virtue light the flame, Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame He hides behind a magisterial air He own offences, and strips others' bare.
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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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They love the country, and none else, who seek For their own sake its silence and its shade. Delights which who would leave, that has a heart Susceptible of pity, or a mind Cultured and capable of sober thought.
William Cowper
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Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.
William Cowper
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No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.
William Cowper
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Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.
William Cowper
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Go, mark the matchless working of the power That shuts within the seed the future flower Bids these in elegance of form excel. In color these, and those delight the smell Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.
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.
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O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!
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A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
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Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart To modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art.
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Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
William Cowper
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But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.
William Cowper
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Strange as it may seem, the most ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood.
William Cowper
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Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.
William Cowper
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Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
William Cowper
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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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The still small voice is wanted.
William Cowper
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Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love.
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