Quote

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

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
Road
Packs
Horse
Mode
Jingling
Leader
Slaves
Thorny
Keep
Bells
Dell
True
Customs
Constancy
Established
Custom
Straight
Crooked
Slave
Pack

More quotes by William Cowper

Image
I am out of humanity's reach.I must finish my journey alone,Never hear the sweet music of speechI start at the sound of my own.
William Cowper
Image
Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons to love it, too.
William Cowper
Image
The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry hem and reading what they never wrote Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!
William Cowper
Image
Come, evening, once again, season of peace Return, sweet evening, and continue long! Methinks I see thee in the streaky west, With matron step, slow moving, while the night Treads on thy sweeping train one hand employ'd In letting fall the curtain of repose On bird and beast, the other charged for man With sweet oblivion of the cares of day.
William Cowper
Image
For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes to light, In every cranny but the right.
William Cowper
Image
And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most.
William Cowper
Image
An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will turn aside and let the reptile live.
William Cowper
Image
The proud are ever most provoked by pride.
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
What is there in the vale of lifeHalf so delightful as a wifeWhen friendship, love and peace combineTo stamp the marriage-bond divine?
William Cowper
Image
Some drill and bore The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by which we learn, That he who made it, and reveal'd its date To Moses, was mistaken in its age.
William Cowper
Image
Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time.
William Cowper
Image
Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy.
William Cowper
Image
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
Image
As if the world and they were hand and glove.
William Cowper
Image
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds: And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
William Cowper
Image
Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
William Cowper
Image
Some to the fascination of a name, Surrender judgment hoodwinked.
William Cowper
Image
Th' embroid'ry of poetic dreams.
William Cowper
Image
O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
William Cowper