Quote

Man in society is like a flow'r, Blown in its native bed. 'Tis there alone His faculties expanded in full bloom Shine out, there only reach their proper use.

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
Reach
Blown
Full
Shine
Alone
Faculty
Society
Native
Use
Proper
Men
Shining
Expanded
Like
Bed
Bloom
Flow
Faculties

More quotes by William Cowper

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Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have oft-times no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
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When nations are to perish in their sins, 'tis in the Church the leprosy begins.
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I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.
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But animated nature sweeter still, to soothe and satisfy the human ear.
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Lord, it is my chief complaint, That my love is weak and faint Yet I love thee and adore, Oh for grace to love thee more!
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.
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The man that hails you Tom or Jack, and proves by thumps upon your back how he esteems your merit, is such a friend, that one had need be very much his friend indeed to pardon or to bear it.
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All truth is precious, if not all divine and what dilates the powers must needs refine.
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Happy the man who sees a God employed in all the good and ills that checker life.
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What we admire we praise and when we praise, Advance it into notice, that its worth Acknowledged, others may admire it too.
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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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Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilirate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature.
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No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.
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Habits are soon assumed but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.
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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.
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What is there in the vale of lifeHalf so delightful as a wifeWhen friendship, love and peace combineTo stamp the marriage-bond divine?
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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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With spots quadrangular of diamond form, ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, and spades, the emblems of untimely graves.
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The rich are too indolent, the poor too weak, to bear the insupportable fatigue of thinking.
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Misery still delights to trace Its semblance in another's case.
William Cowper