110+ William Cowper Quotes On Education, God And A Hare

William Cowper was an English poet of the 18th century. He is best known for his lyric poetry and the poem The Task. His work is often associated with the Romantic period, although his poetry was highly influenced by his personal struggles with mental illness. Following is our collection on famous quotes by William Cowper on love, education, god.

Top 10 William Cowper Quotes

1. An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.
2. Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys: Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours.
3. Grief is itself a medicine.
4. How various his employments whom the world Calls idle; and who justly in return Esteems that busy world an idler too!
5. 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.
6. ...So let us welcome peaceful evening in.
7. I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?
8. And hast thou sworn on every slight pretence, Till perjuries are common as bad pence, While thousands, careless of the damning sin, Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look'd within?
9. E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
10. The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

William Cowper Short Quotes

• Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.
• Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.
• Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.
• The darkest day, If you live till tomorrow will have past away.
• When nations are to perish in their sins, 'tis in the Church the leprosy begins.
• Remorse begets reform.
• Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.
• The nurse sleeps sweetly, hired to watch the sick, / whom, snoring, she disturbs.
• He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.
• Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.

William Cowper Quotes About Love

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

Heaven's harmony is universal love. — William Cowper

Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love. — William Cowper

Unless a love of virtue light the flame, Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame; He hides behind a magisterial air He own offences, and strips others' bare. — William Cowper

They love the country, and none else, who seek For their own sake its silence and its shade. Delights which who would leave, that has a heart Susceptible of pity, or a mind Cultured and capable of sober thought. — William Cowper

Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame,--all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love. — William Cowper

England with all thy faults, I love thee still-- My country! and, while yet a nook is left Where English minds and manners may be found, Shall be constrained to love thee. — William Cowper

Lived in his saddle, loved the chase, the course, And always, ere he mounted, kiss'd his horse. — William Cowper

England, with all thy faults I love thee still, My country! — William Cowper

Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene is touching, and the heart is stone, That feels not at that sight, and feels at none. — William Cowper

William Cowper Quotes About God

God made the country, and man made the town. — William Cowper

Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain. — William Cowper

Great offices will have great talents, and God gives to every man the virtue, temper, understanding, taste, that lifts him into life, and lets him fall just in the niche he was ordained to fill. — William Cowper

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

He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech. — William Cowper

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

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. — William Cowper

In the vast, and the minute, we see The unambiguous footsteps of the God, Who gives its lustre to an insect's wing And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds. — William Cowper

Acquaint thyself with God, if thou would'st taste His works. Admitted once to his embrace, Thou shalt perceive that thou was blind before: Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heart Made pure shall relish with divine delight Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought. — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

William Cowper Quotes About Life

The life of ease is a difficult pursuit. — William Cowper

A life of ease is a difficult pursuit. — William Cowper

Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilirate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature. — William Cowper

What is it but a map of busy life, Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns? — William Cowper

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

Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away. — William Cowper

Variety is the very spice of life that gives it all its flavour. — William Cowper

Happy the man who sees a God employed in all the good and ills that checker life. — William Cowper

A life all turbulence and noise may seem To him that leads it wise and to be praised, But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still waters. — William Cowper

This fond attachment to the well-known place Whence first we started into life's long race, Maintains its hold with such unfailing sway, We feel it e'en in age, and at our latest day. — William Cowper

William Cowper Quotes About Inspiring

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds: And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies. — William Cowper

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds. — William Cowper

The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth. — William Cowper

When all within is peace How nature seems to smile Delights that never cease The live-long day beguile — William Cowper

William Cowper Quotes About Wisdom

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; Wisdom is humble that it knows no more. — William Cowper

Knowledge is proud she knows so much; wisdom is humble that she knows no more.  — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

God never meant that man should scale the Heavens By strides of human wisdom. In his works, Though wondrous, he commands us in his word To seek him rather where his mercy shines. — William Cowper

All constraint, / Except what wisdom lays on evil men, / Is evil. — William Cowper

No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity. — William Cowper

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

Some people are more nice than wise. — William Cowper

The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile. — William Cowper

William Cowper Quotes About Solitude

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

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. — William Cowper

The man to solitude accustom'd long, Perceives in everything that lives a tongue; Not animals alone, but shrubs and trees Have speech for him, and understood with ease, After long drought when rains abundant fall, He hears the herbs and flowers rejoicing all. — William Cowper

Solitude, seeming a sanctuary, proves a grave; a sepulchre in which the living lie, where all good qualities grow sick and die — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade,Where rumour of oppression and deceit,Of unsuccessful or successful war,Might never reach me more. — William Cowper

William Cowper Quotes About Absence

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

Absence of proof is not proof of absence. — William Cowper

Absence of occupation is not rest. — William Cowper

William Cowper Famous Quotes And Sayings

A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun, It gives a light to every age, It gives, but borrows none. — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon, So sophistry, cleaves close to, and protects Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects. — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace. — William Cowper

They fix attention, heedless of your pain, With oaths like rivets forced into the brain; And e'en when sober truth prevails throughout, They swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt. — William Cowper

I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute, From the centre all round to the sea, I am lord of the fowl and the brute. — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

How happy it is to believe, with a steadfast assurance, that our petitions are heard even while we are making them; and how delightful to meet with a proof of it in the effectual and actual grant of them. — William Cowper

The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is always happy, reign whoever may, And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away. — William Cowper

I seem forsaken and alone, / I hear the lion roar; / And every door is shut but one, / And that is Mercy's door. — William Cowper

Tea - the cups that cheer but not inebriate. — William Cowper

War's a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at. — William Cowper

Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill. — William Cowper

Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention. — William Cowper

No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach. — William Cowper

Blest be the art that can immortalize,--the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim to quench it. — William Cowper

Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain. — William Cowper

Remorse, the fatal egg by pleasure laid, In every bosom where her nest is made, Hatched by the beams of truth, denies him rest, And proves a raging scorpion in his breast. — William Cowper

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

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa around, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in — William Cowper

Pity! Religion has so seldom found A skilful guide into poetic ground! The flowers would spring where'er she deign'd to stray And every muse attend her in her way. — William Cowper

When one that holds communion with the skies Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise, And once more mingles with us meaner things, 'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings. — William Cowper

But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost. — William Cowper

Necessity invented stools, Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs, And luxury the accomplish'd Sofa last. — William Cowper

The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing. — William Cowper

Blest be the art that can immortalize. — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree. — William Cowper

Habits are soon assumed; but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive. — William Cowper

The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns; The low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown, And sullen sadness, that o'ershade, distort, And mar the face of beauty, when no cause For such immeasurable woe appears; These Flora banishes, and gives the fair Sweet smiles, and bloom less transient than her own. — William Cowper

Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger's treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold; but, though theirs they have enroll'd me, minds are never to be sold. — William Cowper

Scenes must be beautiful which daily view'd Please daily, and whose novelty survives Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years. — William Cowper

Go, mark the matchless working of the power That shuts within the seed the future flower; Bids these in elegance of form excel. In color these, and those delight the smell; Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes. — William Cowper

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. — William Cowper

The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow. — William Cowper

Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze. — William Cowper

Twere better to be born a stone Of ruder shape, and feeling none, Than with a tenderness like mine And sensibilities so fine! Ah, hapless wretch! condemn'd to dwell Forever in my native shell, Ordained to move when others please, Not for my own content or ease; But toss'd and buffeted about, Now in the water and now out. — William Cowper

How readily we wish time spent revoked, that we might try the ground again where once--through inexperience, as we now perceive--we missed that happiness we might have found! — William Cowper

No one was ever scolded out of their sins. — William Cowper

How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light. — William Cowper

Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home. — William Cowper

Visitors are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not visit, would do nothing. — William Cowper

Oh, popular applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms? The wisest and the best feel urgent need Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales; But swell'd into a gust--who then, alas! With all his canvas set, and inexpert, And therefore, heedless, can withstand thy power? — William Cowper

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

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

O Winter, ruler of the inverted year! — William Cowper

This cabin, Mary, in my sight appears, Built as it has been in our waning years, A rest afforded to our weary feet, Preliminary to - the last retreat. — William Cowper

Toil for the brave! The brave that are no more. — William Cowper

Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule. — William Cowper

To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think. — William Cowper

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

A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can. — William Cowper

Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall. — William Cowper

Not to understand a treasure's worth till time has stole away the slighted good, is cause of half the poverty we feel, and makes the world the wilderness it is. — 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, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, By lean despair upon an empty purse. — William Cowper

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

The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man. — 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; and, new or old, still hasten to a close. — William Cowper

As if the world and they were hand and glove. — William Cowper

And, of all lies (be that one poet's boast) / The lie that flatters I abhor the most. — William Cowper

Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both. — William Cowper

It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience. — William Cowper

Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard: To carry nature lengths unknown before, To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more. — William Cowper

Where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown. — William Cowper

Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away. — William Cowper

Fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home. — William Cowper

Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose. — William Cowper

But animated nature sweeter still, to soothe and satisfy the human ear. — William Cowper

Life Lessons by William Cowper

1. William Cowper taught that life is full of suffering and sorrow, but that it is possible to find joy and solace in the beauty of nature and the love of God.
2. He also believed that it is important to be kind and generous to others, and to always strive to do what is right and just.
3. Finally, Cowper believed that it is essential to have faith in God and to have patience, as He will ultimately provide us with the strength and courage to overcome any obstacle.