Quotes
Quotes - Cowley
What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the age to come my own?
His time is forever, everywhere his place.
We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine,
But search of deep philosophy,
Wit, eloquence, and poetry;
Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine.
His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might
Be wrong; his life, I 'm sure, was in the right.
The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
And drinks, and gapes for drink again;
The plants suck in the earth, and are
With constant drinking fresh and fair.
Fill all the glasses there, for why
Should every creature drink but I?
Why, man of morals, tell me why?
A mighty pain to love it is,
And 't is a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.
Hope, of all ills that men endure,
The only cheap and universal cure.
Th' adorning thee with so much art
Is but a barb'rous skill;
'T is like the pois'ning of a dart,
Too apt before to kill.
Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.
When Israel was from bondage led,
Led by the Almighty's hand
From out of foreign land,
The great sea beheld and fled.
An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair,
And fell adown his shoulders with loose care.
The monster London laugh at me.
Let but thy wicked men from out thee go,
And all the fools that crowd thee so,
Even thou, who dost thy millions boast,
A village less than Islington wilt grow,
A solitude almost.
The fairest garden in her looks,
And in her mind the wisest books.
God the first garden made, and the first city Cain.
Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all,
Both the great vulgar and the small.
Charm'd with the foolish whistling of a name
Words that weep and tears that speak.
We griev'd, we sigh'd, we wept; we never blush'd before.
Thus would I double my life's fading space;
For he that runs it well, runs twice his race.
We griev'd, we sigh'd, we wept; we never blushed before.
Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past, And neither fear nor wish th' approaches of the last.
Nothing in Nature's sober found, But an eternal Health goes round. Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high-- Fill all the Glasses there; for why Should every Creature Drink but I? Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?
The thirsty Earth soaks up the Rain, And drinks, and gapes for Drink again; The Plants suck in the Earth and are With constant Drinking fresh and fair.
