Quote

Poor England! thou art a devoted deer, Beset with every ill but that of fear. The nations hunt all mock thee for a prey They swarm around thee, and thou stand'st at bay.

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
Every
Thee
Hunt
England
Deer
Stand
Mock
Nations
Hunts
Poor
Prey
Fear
Devoted
Swarm
Art
Ill
Beset
Around
Thou
Swarms

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A heretic, my dear sir, is a fellow who disagrees with you regarding something neither of you knows anything about.
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Some people are more nice than wise.
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Twere better to be born a stone Of ruder shape, and feeling none, Than with a tenderness like mine And sensibilities so fine! Ah, hapless wretch! condemn'd to dwell Forever in my native shell, Ordained to move when others please, Not for my own content or ease But toss'd and buffeted about, Now in the water and now out.
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A Christian's wit is offensive light, A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight Vig'rous in age as in the flush of youth, 'Tis always active on the side of truth.
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Events of all sorts creep or fly exactly as God pleases.
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No traveler e'er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.
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Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.
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Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.
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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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[My kitten] is dressed in a tortoise-shell suit, and I know you will delight in her.
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Go, mark the matchless working of the power That shuts within the seed the future flower Bids these in elegance of form excel. In color these, and those delight the smell Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.
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He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech.
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All we behold is miracle.
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To impute our recovery to medicine, and to carry our view no further, is to rob God of His honor, and is saying in effect that He has parted with the keys of life and death, and, by giving to a drug the power to heal us, has placed our lives out of His own reach.
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A story, in which native humour reigns, Is often useful, always entertains A graver fact, enlisted on your side, May furnish illustration, well applied But sedentary weavers of long tales Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails.
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Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.
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The solemn fop significant and budge A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge
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Strange as it may seem, the most ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood.
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To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.
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How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.
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