Quote

Some men make gain a fountain, whence proceeds A stream of liberal and heroic deeds The swell of pity, not to be confined Within the scanty limits of the mind.

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
Make
Gain
Proceeds
Men
Pity
Whence
Deeds
Confined
Gains
Fountain
Trade
Stream
Limits
Heroic
Within
Streams
Scanty
Mind
Liberal
Swell

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Spare feast! a radish and an egg.
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Hast thou not learnd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, That no success attends on spears and swords Unblest, and that the battle is the Lords?
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Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.
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Scenes must be beautiful which daily view'd Please daily, and whose novelty survives Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years.
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The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.
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Fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.
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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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Knowledge is proud that it knows so much wisdom is humble that it knows no more.
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Blest be the art that can immortalize.
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If hindrances obstruct the way, Thy magnanimity display. And let thy strength be seen: But O, if Fortune fill thy sail With more than a propitious gale, Take half thy canvas in.
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A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion a temper passionate and fierce may suddenly your joys disperse at one immense explosion.
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Greece, sound, thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name, But England's Milton equals both in fame.
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There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.
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War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at.
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But truths on which depends our main concern, That 'tis our shame and misery not to learn, Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a lustre he that runs may read.
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If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one.
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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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And in that hour, The seeds of cruelty, that since have swell'd To such gigantic and enormous growth, Were sown in human nature's fruitful soil. Hence date the persecution and the pain That man inflicts on all inferior kinds, Regardless of their plaints.
William Cowper
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No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.
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The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick, / whom, snoring, she disturbs.
William Cowper