William Cowper Quotes

Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

It seems idolatry with some excuse,
When our forefather Druids in their oaks
Imagined sanctity.

Glory, built
On selfish principles, is shame and guilt.

Prove that you have human feelings, Ere you proudly question ours!

O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!

Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,— A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.

If the world like it not, so much the worse for them.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace, behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spades, the emblems of untimely graves.

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

Nature is but a name for an effect, Whose cause is God.

A moral, sensible, and well-bred man Will not affront me, and no other can.

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.

I, fed with judgment, in a fleshy tomb, am
Buried above ground.

'Tis hard if all is false that I advance, A fool must now and then be right by chance.