Top 342 Quotes & Sayings by William Cowper

Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.

The darkest day, if you live till tomorrow, will have passed away.

Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.

Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.

Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.

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.

God made the country, and man made the town.

Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.

An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting.

Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.

No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.

O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?

No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.

A fool must now and then be right, by chance.

No one was ever scolded out of their sins.

Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.

Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.

Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.

It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.

They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.

The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul bawled out, Well done! As loud as he could bawl.

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.

The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.

Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.

God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more.

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

O solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place.

The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.

Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books.

Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.

Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.

There is mercy in every place. And mercy, encouraging thought gives even affliction a grace and reconciles man to his lot.

How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat, whom I may whisper, solitude is sweet.

Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons to love it, too.

God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, and the devil made sin; So God made a cole-pit to put the devil in.

A fool must now and then be right, by chance

The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight.

In a fleshly tomb, I am buried above ground.

To impute our recovery to medicine, and to carry our view no further, is to rob God of His honor, and is saying in effect that He has parted with the keys of life and death, and, by giving to a drug the power to heal us, has placed our lives out of His own reach.

A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.

'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are weeds without it.

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.

Trials make the promise sweet, Trials give new life to prayer; Trials bring me to His feet, Lay me low, and keep me there.

Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in white and black the same.

There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.

The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing.

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

The only amarantine flower on earth Is virtue.

Grief is itself a medicine.

But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease.

No traveler e'er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.

The Cross! There, and there only (though the deist rave, and the atheist, if Earth bears so base a slave); There and there only, is the power to save.

God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

Restraining prayer, we cease to fight; Prayer keeps the Christian's armor bright; And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.

Perhaps thou gav'st me, though unseen, a kiss; Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss.