William Cowper
» Absence » “Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.”
» Applause » “O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?”
» Chance » “A fool must now and then be right, by chance.”
» Churches » “The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.”
» Compassion » “Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.”
» Conscience » “The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.”
» Devil » “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.”
» Enthusiasm » “No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.”
» Experts » “How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.”
» Fanatics and Fanaticism » “Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind.”
» Glory » “Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.”
» Guests » “Visitors are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not visit, would do nothing.”
» Hope » “The darkest day, If you live till tomorrow will have past away.”
» Idleness » “The life of ease is a difficult pursuit.”
» Insanity » “Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.”
» Knowledge » “Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; Wisdom is humble that it knows no more.”
» Knowledge » “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.”
» Life and Living » “A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.”
» Nations » “God made the country and man made the town.”
» Nature » “Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.”
» Pride » “A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.”
» Profanity » “It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.”
» Purpose » “Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.”
» Purpose » “Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.”
» Regret » “Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.”
» Religion » “Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word!”
» Remorse » “Remorse begets reform.”
» Rest » “Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.”
» Sin » “No one was ever scolded out of their sins.”
» Slavery » “I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?”
» Solitude » “Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.”
» Sorrow » “The path of sorrow and that path alone, leads to a land where sorrow is unknown.”
» Teachers and Teaching » “Once more I would adopt the graver style — a teacher should be sparing of his smile.”
» Temper » “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.”
» Trust » “Candid and generous and just. Boys care but little whom they trust. An error soon corrected — for who but learns in riper years. That man, when smoothest he appears, is most to be suspected?”
» Truth » “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.”
» Variety » “Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.”
» Wit » “A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship’s finest feeling, will thrust a dagger at your breast, and say he wounded you in jest, by way of balm for healing.”
