William Cowper

Religion, richest favor of the skies.

— William Cowper

The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.

— William Cowper

No one was ever scolded out of their sins.

— William Cowper

Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd.

— William Cowper

...So let us welcome peaceful evening in.

— William Cowper

With all my faults, I love thee still.

— William Cowper

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

— William Cowper

Spare feast! a radish and an egg.

— William Cowper

The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

— William Cowper

Far happier are the dead methinks than they who look for death and fear it every day.

— William Cowper

Pleasure admitted in undue degree, enslaves the will, nor leaves the judgment free.

— William Cowper

For when was public virtue to be found Where private was not?

— William Cowper

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

— William Cowper

A business with a income at its heels, furnishes always oil for its own wheels

— William Cowper

Misery still delights to trace Its semblance in another's case.

— William Cowper

Though peace be made, yet it's interest that keep peace.

— William Cowper

The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue.

— William Cowper

God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, and the devil made…

— William Cowper

... no wisdom that [my kitten] may gain by experience and reflection hereafter will compensate for the loss of her present hilarity.

— William Cowper

A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct; The language plain, and incidents well link'd; Tell not as new what ev'ry body knows;…

— William Cowper

If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a…

— William Cowper

What we admire we praise; and when we praise, Advance it into notice, that its worth Acknowledged, others may admire it too.

— William Cowper

I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life, Coincident, exhibit lucid proof That…

— William Cowper

I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man…

— William Cowper

Even in the stifling bosom of the town, A garden, in which nothing thrives, has charms That soothes the rich possessor; much…

— William Cowper

God never meant that man should scale the Heavens By strides of human wisdom. In his works, Though wondrous, he commands us…

— William Cowper

Thou god of our idolatry, the press. . . . Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wise; Thou ever-bubbling spring…

— William Cowper

Most satirists are indeed a public scourge; Their mildest physic is a farrier's purge; Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr'd,…

— William Cowper

Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen, Delightful industry enjoy'd at home, An Nature, in her cultivated trim Dress'ed to his…

— William Cowper

Hast thou not learnd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, That no success attends on…

— William Cowper

And hast thou sworn on every slight pretence, Till perjuries are common as bad pence, While thousands, careless of the damning sin,…

— William Cowper

Dejection of spirits, which may have prevented many a man from becoming an author, made me one. I find constant employment necessary,…

— William Cowper

Mansions once Knew their own masters, and laborious hinds, That had surviv'd the father, serv'd the son. Now the legitimate and rightful…

— William Cowper

Alas! if my best Friend, who laid down His life for me, were to remember all the instances in which I have…

— William Cowper

Fashion, leader of a chatt'ring train, Whom man for his own hurt permits to reign Who shifts and changes all things but…

— William Cowper

“Happy the bard, (if that fair name belong To him that blends no fable with his song) Whose lines uniting, by an…

— William Cowper

Would I describe a preacher, I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, And plain in manner;…

— William Cowper

I was a poet too; but modern taste Is so refined and delicate and chaste, That verse, whatever fire the fancy warms,…

— William Cowper

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

— William Cowper

“Man disavows, and Deity disowns me; Hell might afford my miseries a shelter; Therefore Hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all Bolted against…

— William Cowper