Quote

How readily we wish time spent revoked, that we might try the ground again where once--through inexperience, as we now perceive--we missed that happiness we might have found!

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
Past
Readily
Might
Missed
Trying
Perceive
Time
Spent
Ground
Happiness
Wish
Revoked
Found
Inexperience

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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
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There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart he does not feel for man.
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In a fleshly tomb, I am buried above ground.
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No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.
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Absence of occupation is not rest.
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When scandal has new-minted an old lie, Or tax'd invention for a fresh supply, 'Tis call'd a satire, and the world appears Gathering around it with erected ears A thousand names are toss'd into the crowd, Some whisper'd softly, and some twang'd aloud, Just as the sapience of an author's brain, Suggests it safe or dangerous to be plain.
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Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days The scene is touching, and the heart is stone, That feels not at that sight, and feels at none.
William Cowper
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Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
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I am out of humanity's reach.
William Cowper
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The kindest and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear And something, every day they live, To pity, and perhaps forgive.
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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
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Habits are soon assumed but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.
William Cowper
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The few that pray at all pray oft amiss.
William Cowper
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Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.
William Cowper
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The only amarantine flower on earth Is virtue.
William Cowper
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Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill.
William Cowper
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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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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
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Not a flower But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain, Of his unrivall'd pencil. He inspires Their balmy odors, and imparts their hues, And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes In grains as countless as the seaside sands, The forms with which he sprinkles all the earth Happy who walks with him!
William Cowper
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Domestic happiness, thou only bliss Of paradise that has surviv'd the fall!
William Cowper