William Cowper Quotes

No voice divine the storm allay'd, No light propitious shone; When, snatch'd from all effectual aid, We perish'd, each alone; But I beneath a rougher sea, And whelmed in deeper gulphs than he.

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

Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry — Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry.

Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day (Live till tomorrow) will have passed away.

Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.

My soul
Shall bear that also; for, by practice taught,
I have learned patience, having much endured.

As when around the clear bright moon, the stars
Shine in full splendor, and the winds are hush'd,
The groves, the mountain-tops, the headland-heights
Stand all apparent, not a vapor streaks
The boundless blue, but ether open'd wide
All glitters, and the shepherd's heart is cheer'd.

I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.

And still to love, though prest with ill, In wintry age to feel no chill, With me is to be lovely still, My Mary!

Toll for the brave — The brave! that are no more; All sunk beneath the wave, Fast by their native shore!

Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a luster, he that runs may read.

An honest man, close-buttoned to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.

I believe no man was ever scolded out of his sins.

Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own.

Candid, and generous, and just, Boys care but little whom they trust, An error soon corrected— For who but learns in riper years That man, when smoothest he appears Is most to be suspected?