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Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace.

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
Grace
Virtue
Wisdom
Taken
Fall
Accomplishments
Place
Exterior
Falls
Accomplishment

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... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.
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Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made, To turn a penny in the way of trade.
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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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Tea - the cups that cheer but not inebriate.
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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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God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction.
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Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary, and therefore take care to be constantly employed. . . . When I can find no other occupation, I think and when I think, I am very apt to do it in rhyme.
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Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat, To peep at such a world to see the stir Of the Great Babel, and not feel the crowd.
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We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works die too.
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Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound.
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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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Most satirists are indeed a public scourge Their mildest physic is a farrier's purge Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr'd, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, By lean despair upon an empty purse.
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And the tear that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.
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Sends Nature forth the daughter of the skies... To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.
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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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Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.
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Oh, popular applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms? The wisest and the best feel urgent need Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales But swell'd into a gust--who then, alas! With all his canvas set, and inexpert, And therefore, heedless, can withstand thy power?
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For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes to light, In every cranny but the right.
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They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.
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The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing.
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