Quote

We bear our shades about us self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree.

William Cowper

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

William Cowper
Age: 68 †
Born: 1731
Born: November 26
Died: 1800
Died: April 25
Hymnwriter
Poet
Poet Lawyer
Translator
Writer
Berkhamsted
Hertfordshire
Without
Screens
Self
Indian
Range
Shades
Bear
Umbrella
Spread
Deprived
Bears
Thin
Waste
Shade
Tree
Screen

More quotes by William Cowper

Image
Tea - the cups that cheer but not inebriate.
William Cowper
Image
We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder lean.
William Cowper
Image
But many a crime deemed innocent on earth Is registered in Heaven and these no doubt Have each their record, with a curse annex'd.
William Cowper
Image
Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill.
William Cowper
Image
There is a mixture of evil in everything we do indulgence encourages us to encroach, while we Crabbe exercise the rights of children, we become childish.
William Cowper
Image
Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys: Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours.
William Cowper
Image
Blest be the art that can immortalize,--the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim to quench it.
William Cowper
Image
A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
William Cowper
Image
Philologists, who chase A painting syllable through time and space Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark, To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's Ark.
William Cowper
Image
We are never more in danger than when we think ourselves most secure, nor in reality more secure than when we seem to be most in danger.
William Cowper
Image
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
Image
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart he does not feel for man.
William Cowper
Image
Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary, and therefore take care to be constantly employed. . . . When I can find no other occupation, I think and when I think, I am very apt to do it in rhyme.
William Cowper
Image
God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction.
William Cowper
Image
Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame,--all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love.
William Cowper
Image
Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.
William Cowper
Image
God made the country, and man made the town.
William Cowper
Image
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.
William Cowper
Image
Vice stings us even in our pleasures, but virtue consoles us even in our pains.
William Cowper
Image
And hast thou sworn on every slight pretence, Till perjuries are common as bad pence, While thousands, careless of the damning sin, Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look'd within?
William Cowper