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If a great man struggling with misfortunes is a noble object, a little man that despises them is no contemptible one.

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
Struggle
Despises
Littles
Contemptible
Little
Struggling
Great
Misfortunes
Men
Despise
Object
Noble
Objects

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How readily we wish time spent revoked, that we might try the ground again where once--through inexperience, as we now perceive--we missed that happiness we might have found!
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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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Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,- A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.
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God forbid that Judges upon their oath should make resolutions to enlarge jurisdiction.
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Habits are soon assumed but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.
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Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace.
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God never meant that man should scale the Heavens By strides of human wisdom. In his works, Though wondrous, he commands us in his word To seek him rather where his mercy shines.
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Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, / Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass lost.
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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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No traveler e'er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.
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The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry hem and reading what they never wrote Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!
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Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa around, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in
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When I thinkof my own native land, In a moment I seem to be there But alas! recollection at hand Soon hurries me back to despair.
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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.
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In man or woman, but far most in man, And most of all in man that ministers, And serves the altar, in my soul I loathe All affectation. 'Tis my perfect scorn: Object of my implacable disgust.
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Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.
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An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting.
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It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.
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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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The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.
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