Quotes
Quotes - Cowper
His head, Not yet by time completely silver'd o'er, Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth, But strong for service still, and unimpair'd.
Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose.
Domestic Happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that hast survived the Fall!
He who finds thought that lets us penetrate even a little deeper into the eternal mystery of nature has been granted great grace. He who, in addition, experiences the recognition, sympathy, and help of the best minds of his times, had been given almost more happiness than one man can bear.
Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.
A hat not much worse for wear.
Where tempests never beat nor billows roar.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will turn aside and let the reptile live.
And prate and preach about what others prove, As if the world and they were hand and glove.
An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.
How various his employments whom the world Calls idle; and who justly in return Esteems that busy world an idler too!
Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.
All learned, and all drunk!
Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.
Fast-anchor'd isle.
As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon.
Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love.
How shall I speak thee, or thy power address Thou God of our idolatry, the Press. . . . . Like Eden's dead probationary tree, Knowledge of good and evil is from thee.
He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks; News from all nations lumbering at his back.
When admirals extoll'd for standing still, Of doing nothing with a deal of skill.
Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And learning wiser grow without his books.
'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are weeds without it.
Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.
. . . Philologists, who chase A painting syllable through time and space Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark, To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's Ark.
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.
