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The rich are too indolent, the poor too weak, to bear the insupportable fatigue of thinking.

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
Thinking
Insupportable
Indolent
Fatigue
Bear
Bears
Weak
Rich
Poor

More quotes by William Cowper

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Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hourThe bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flow’r. Blind unbelief is sure to err And scan His work in vain God is His own interpreter, And He will make it plain.
William Cowper
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An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will turn aside and let the reptile live.
William Cowper
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God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction.
William Cowper
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Defend me, therefore, common sense, say From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up.
William Cowper
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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.
William Cowper
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Sends Nature forth the daughter of the skies... To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.
William Cowper
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Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam.
William Cowper
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All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil.
William Cowper
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Greece, sound, thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name, But England's Milton equals both in fame.
William Cowper
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All affectation 'tis my perfect scorn Object of my implacable disgust.
William Cowper
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...So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
William Cowper
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Anticipated rents, and bills unpaid, Force many a shining youth into the shade, Not to redeem his time, but his estate, And play the fool, but at the cheaper rate.
William Cowper
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A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
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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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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The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile.
William Cowper
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Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
William Cowper
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Misery still delights to trace Its semblance in another's case.
William Cowper
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There is mercy in every place. And mercy, encouraging thought gives even affliction a grace and reconciles man to his lot.
William Cowper
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All we behold is miracle.
William Cowper