Quote

Misery still delights to trace Its semblance in another's case.

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
Cases
Another
Stills
Semblance
Still
Delights
Trace
Delight
Misery
Case

More quotes by William Cowper

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True modesty is a discerning grace And only blushes in the proper place But counterfeit is blind, and skulks through fear, Where 'tis a shame to be asham'd t' appear: Humility the parent of the first, The last by vanity produc'd and nurs'd.
William Cowper
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A life all turbulence and noise may seem To him that leads it wise and to be praised, But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still waters.
William Cowper
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Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
William Cowper
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Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
William Cowper
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We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works die too.
William Cowper
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Great offices will have great talents.
William Cowper
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Lights of the world, and stars of human race.
William Cowper
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Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
William Cowper
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Great offices will have great talents, and God gives to every man the virtue, temper, understanding, taste, that lifts him into life, and lets him fall just in the niche he was ordained to fill.
William Cowper
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Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
William Cowper
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And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most.
William Cowper
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When one that holds communion with the skies Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise, And once more mingles with us meaner things, 'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings.
William Cowper
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Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound.
William Cowper
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Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.
William Cowper
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How soft the music of those village bells, Falling at interval upon the ear In cadence sweet now dying all away, Now pealing loud again, and louder still, Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on! With easy force it opens all the cells Where Memory slept.
William Cowper
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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.
William Cowper
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What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void The world can never fill.
William Cowper
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[My kitten's] gambols are not to be described, and would be incredible, if they could.
William Cowper
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Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilirate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature.
William Cowper
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Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.
William Cowper