Quote

They fix attention, heedless of your pain, With oaths like rivets forced into the brain And e'en when sober truth prevails throughout, They swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt.

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
Till
Oaths
Doubt
Prevails
Brain
Breeds
Attention
Oath
Pain
Sober
Truth
Swear
Like
Forced
Rivets
Throughout
Heedless

More quotes by William Cowper

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When I thinkof my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair.
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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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Heaven's harmony is universal love.
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If a great man struggling with misfortunes is a noble object, a little man that despises them is no contemptible one.
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... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.
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Habits are soon assumed but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.
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It is a terrible thought, that nothing is ever forgotten that not an oath is ever uttered that does not continue to vibrate through all times, in the wide spreading current of sound that not a prayer is lisped, that its record is not to be found st
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Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
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Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard: To carry nature lengths unknown before, To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.
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The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away.
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Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
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Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.
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But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought Of freedom, in that hope itself possess All that the contest calls for spirit, strength, The scorn of danger, and united hearts, The surest presage of the good they seek.
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The still small voice is wanted.
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Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart To modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art.
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Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention.
William Cowper
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[My kitten] is dressed in a tortoise-shell suit, and I know you will delight in her.
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I have a kitten,the drollest of all creatures that ever wore a cat's skin.
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A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
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Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.
William Cowper