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The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue.

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
Lead
Poetry
Duty
Side
Virtue
Sides
Passion
Passions
Art
Touch

More quotes by William Cowper

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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.
William Cowper
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Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart To modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art.
William Cowper
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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
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Made poetry a mere mechanic art.
William Cowper
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The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.
William Cowper
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Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
William Cowper
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The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue the only lasting treasure, truth.
William Cowper
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The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns The low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown, And sullen sadness, that o'ershade, distort, And mar the face of beauty, when no cause For such immeasurable woe appears These Flora banishes, and gives the fair Sweet smiles, and bloom less transient than her own.
William Cowper
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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
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The path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.
William Cowper
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Religion does not censure or exclude Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.
William Cowper
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For when was public virtue to be found Where private was not?
William Cowper
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O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturbed Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.
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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A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about.
William Cowper
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Where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown.
William Cowper
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The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.
William Cowper
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The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing.
William Cowper
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Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend.
William Cowper
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But war's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world.
William Cowper