William Cowper quote: "Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose."

Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.
WILLIAM COWPER

Then liberty, like day, Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heaven Fires all the faculties...
WILLIAM COWPER

'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are w...
WILLIAM COWPER

Hast thou not learn'd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, Tha...
WILLIAM COWPER

The only amarantine flower on earth Is virtue.
WILLIAM COWPER

Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilarate the spirit, and restore The tone of langu...
WILLIAM COWPER

Nature, exerting an unwearied power, Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower; Spreads th...
WILLIAM COWPER

Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
WILLIAM COWPER

Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart Must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
WILLIAM COWPER

Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene...
WILLIAM COWPER

He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks; ...
WILLIAM COWPER

How shall I speak thee, or thy power address Thou God of our idolatry, the Press. . . . . ...
WILLIAM COWPER

Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love.
WILLIAM COWPER

He who finds thought that lets us penetrate even a little deeper into the eternal mystery of nature...
WILLIAM COWPER

Domestic Happiness, thou only bliss Of Paradise that hast survived the Fall!
WILLIAM COWPER

Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose.
WILLIAM COWPER

The man that hails you Tom or Jack, And proves by thumps upon your back How he esteems your me...
WILLIAM COWPER

Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And learning wiser grow without his books...
WILLIAM COWPER

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam Excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
WILLIAM COWPER

True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd.
WILLIAM COWPER

A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
WILLIAM COWPER

O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
WILLIAM COWPER

God made the country and man made the town.
WILLIAM COWPER

Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
WILLIAM COWPER

The life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
WILLIAM COWPER

A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion; a temp...
WILLIAM COWPER

The man that hails you Tom or Jack, and proves by thumps upon your back how he esteems your merit, i...
WILLIAM COWPER

A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feeling, will ...
WILLIAM COWPER

The darkest day, If you live till tomorrow will have past away.
WILLIAM COWPER

Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.
WILLIAM COWPER

No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.
WILLIAM COWPER

Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and ...
WILLIAM COWPER

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; Wisdom is humble that it knows no more.
WILLIAM COWPER

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

Unless a love of virtue light the flame,
Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame;
He ...
WILLIAM COWPER

The path of sorrow and that path alone, leads to a land where sorrow is unknown.
WILLIAM COWPER

Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger's treasu...
WILLIAM COWPER

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?
WILLIAM COWPER

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
WILLIAM COWPER

Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.
WILLIAM COWPER

Remorse begets reform.
WILLIAM COWPER

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.
WILLIAM COWPER

It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.
WILLIAM COWPER

Variety is the very spice of life that gives it all its flavour.
WILLIAM COWPER

I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute on;
but I wish that I coul...
WILLIAM COWPER

Candid and generous and just. Boys care but little whom they trust. An error soon corrected -- for w...
WILLIAM COWPER

Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps he...
WILLIAM COWPER

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the ...
WILLIAM COWPER

You told me, I remember, glory, built
On selfish principles, is shame and guilt;
The deeds th...
WILLIAM COWPER

Visitors are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not visit, would ...
WILLIAM COWPER

Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind.
WILLIAM COWPER

A fool must now and then be right, by chance.
WILLIAM COWPER

Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
WILLIAM COWPER

Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
WILLIAM COWPER

Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.
WILLIAM COWPER

The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.
WILLIAM COWPER

When his wife asked him to change clothes to meet the German Ambassador: "If they want to see me, ...
WILLIAM COWPER

If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ...
WILLIAM COWPER

Dress drains our cellar dry, And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires And introduces hung...
WILLIAM COWPER

Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
WILLIAM COWPER

But conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should fl...
WILLIAM COWPER

Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And...
WILLIAM COWPER

Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.
WILLIAM COWPER

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

God made the country, and man made the town.
WILLIAM COWPER

Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own.
WILLIAM COWPER

Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word!
WILLIAM COWPER

The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.
WILLIAM COWPER

No one was ever scolded out of their sins.
WILLIAM COWPER

With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spad...
WILLIAM COWPER

Toil for the brave! The brave that are no more.
WILLIAM COWPER

But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell t...
WILLIAM COWPER

I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the ma...
WILLIAM COWPER

The church-going bell.
WILLIAM COWPER

How soft the music of those village bells, Falling at interval upon the ear In cadence sweet; ...
WILLIAM COWPER

So that the jest is clearly to be seen, Not in the words--but in the gap between; Manner is al...
WILLIAM COWPER

Habits of close attention, thinking heads, Become more rare as dissipation spreads, Till autho...
WILLIAM COWPER

None but an author knows an author's cares, Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears.
WILLIAM COWPER

As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon.
WILLIAM COWPER

O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, F...
WILLIAM COWPER

I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute, From the centre all round to ...
WILLIAM COWPER

Words pregnant with celestial fire.
WILLIAM COWPER

Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations, who had else Like kindred drops been mingled int...
WILLIAM COWPER

Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.
WILLIAM COWPER

An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path. But he that...
WILLIAM COWPER

Silently as a dream the fabric rose; No sound of hammer or of saw was there.
WILLIAM COWPER

Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish w...
WILLIAM COWPER

Whoever keeps an open ear For tattlers will be sure to hear The trumpet of contention.
WILLIAM COWPER

Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze.
WILLIAM COWPER

Now let us sing, long live the king.
WILLIAM COWPER

We are his, To serve him nobly in the common cause, True to the death, but not to be his slave...
WILLIAM COWPER

If hindrances obstruct the way, Thy magnanimity display. And let thy strength be seen: B...
WILLIAM COWPER

And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.
WILLIAM COWPER

England with all thy faults, I love thee still-- My country! and, while yet a nook is left Wh...
WILLIAM COWPER

O Popular Applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
WILLIAM COWPER

And prate and preach about what others prove, As if the world and they were hand and glove.
WILLIAM COWPER

He would not, with a peremptory tone, Assert the nose upon his face his own.
WILLIAM COWPER

Me therefore studious of laborious ease.
WILLIAM COWPER

Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd.
WILLIAM COWPER

. . . thieves at home must hang; but he that puts Into his overgorged and bloated purse The we...
WILLIAM COWPER

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds.
WILLIAM COWPER

The sounding jargon of the schools.
WILLIAM COWPER

Seek to delight, that they may mend mankind. And, while they captivate, inform the mind.
WILLIAM COWPER

Now stir the fire, and close the shudders fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, A...
WILLIAM COWPER

Unless a love of virtue light the flame, Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame; He hi...
WILLIAM COWPER

But truths on which depends our main concern, That 'tis our shame and misery not to learn, Shi...
WILLIAM COWPER

The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well...
WILLIAM COWPER

Once more I would adopt the graver style -- a teacher should be sparing of his smile.
WILLIAM COWPER

Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?
WILLIAM COWPER

Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home.
WILLIAM COWPER

While fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.
WILLIAM COWPER

Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.
WILLIAM COWPER

When admirals extoll'd for standing still, Of doing nothing with a deal of skill.
WILLIAM COWPER

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful a...
WILLIAM COWPER

Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of o...
WILLIAM COWPER

How various his employments whom the world Calls idle; and who justly in return Esteems that b...
WILLIAM COWPER

An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.
WILLIAM COWPER

Where tempests never beat nor billows roar.
WILLIAM COWPER

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.
WILLIAM COWPER

Dream after dream ensues; And still they dream that they shall still succeed; And still are di...
WILLIAM COWPER

Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.
WILLIAM COWPER

An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting
WILLIAM COWPER

Glory built on selfish principles is shame and guilt.
WILLIAM COWPER

Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.
WILLIAM COWPER

Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.
WILLIAM COWPER

They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.
WILLIAM COWPER

The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul bawled out, Well d...
WILLIAM COWPER

A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun, It gives a light to every age, It ...
WILLIAM COWPER

Assail'd by scandal and the tongue of strife, His only answer was a blameless life; And he tha...
WILLIAM COWPER

Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; T...
WILLIAM COWPER

All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence.
WILLIAM COWPER

A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
WILLIAM COWPER

God moves in mysterious ways
His wonders to performs
WILLIAM COWPER

That good diffused may more abundant grow.
WILLIAM COWPER

. . . glory built On selfish principles is shame and guilt.
WILLIAM COWPER

God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, an...
WILLIAM COWPER

Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face.
WILLIAM COWPER

'Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.
WILLIAM COWPER

Prison'd in a parlour snug and small, Like bottled wasps upon a southern wall.
WILLIAM COWPER

Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousan...
WILLIAM COWPER

The priest he merry is, and blithe Three-quarters of a year, But oh! it cuts him like a scyth...
WILLIAM COWPER

A kick that scarce would move a horse, May kill a sound divine.
WILLIAM COWPER

The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry...
WILLIAM COWPER

He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment an...
WILLIAM COWPER

Would I describe a preacher, . . . . I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doct...
WILLIAM COWPER

I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life, C...
WILLIAM COWPER

There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
WILLIAM COWPER

Praise enough To fill the ambition of a private man, That Chatham's language was his mother-to...
WILLIAM COWPER

He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful; messenger of grief Perhap...
WILLIAM COWPER

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased
Wi...
WILLIAM COWPER

Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.
WILLIAM COWPER

I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since.
WILLIAM COWPER

His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
WILLIAM COWPER

Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule.
WILLIAM COWPER

What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching...
WILLIAM COWPER

Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head...
WILLIAM COWPER

O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyme...
WILLIAM COWPER

For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes t...
WILLIAM COWPER

Our wasted oil unprofitably burns, Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.
WILLIAM COWPER

Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you h...
WILLIAM COWPER

'Twere better to be born a stone Of ruder shape, and feeling none, Than with a tenderness like...
WILLIAM COWPER

The earth was made so various, that the mind of desultory man, studious of change, and pleased with ...
WILLIAM COWPER

. . . Philologists, who chase A painting syllable through time and space Start it at home, and...
WILLIAM COWPER

Fast-anchor'd isle.
WILLIAM COWPER

Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.
WILLIAM COWPER

All learned, and all drunk!
WILLIAM COWPER

Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct l...
WILLIAM COWPER

A hat not much worse for wear.
WILLIAM COWPER

His head, Not yet by time completely silver'd o'er, Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish yo...
WILLIAM COWPER

Some to the fascination of a name, Surrender judgment hoodwinked.
WILLIAM COWPER

Exactness is the sublimity of fools. [Fr., L'exactitude est le sublime des sots.]
WILLIAM COWPER

Defend me, therefore, common sense, say From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping bucke...
WILLIAM COWPER

The solemn fog; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.
WILLIAM COWPER

Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which e...
WILLIAM COWPER

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.
WILLIAM COWPER

The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
WILLIAM COWPER

The Frenchman, easy, debonair, and brisk, Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk, Is alw...
WILLIAM COWPER

Words learned by rote a parrot may rehearse; but talking is not always to converse, not more distinc...
WILLIAM COWPER

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

A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
WILLIAM COWPER

The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the lands where sorrow is unknown.
WILLIAM COWPER

O solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst o...
WILLIAM COWPER

Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness, Some boundless contiguity of shade, Where rumour of o...
WILLIAM COWPER

I praise the Frenchman; his remark was shrewd,-- "How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude." B...
WILLIAM COWPER

A story, in which native humour reigns, Is often useful, always entertains; A graver fact, enl...
WILLIAM COWPER

Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse, Not more d...
WILLIAM COWPER

Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour.
WILLIAM COWPER

The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change And pleased ...
WILLIAM COWPER

God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And r...
WILLIAM COWPER

His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home.
WILLIAM COWPER

Ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touch'd by the Midas finger of ...
WILLIAM COWPER

Still ending, and beginning still.
WILLIAM COWPER

We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And rang...
WILLIAM COWPER

Some boundless contiguity of shade.
WILLIAM COWPER

No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.
WILLIAM COWPER

Discourse may want an animated "No"To brush the surface, and to make it flow;But still remember, if ...
WILLIAM COWPER

Me howling blasts drive devious, tempest-tossed, / Sails ripped, seams opening wide, and compass los...
WILLIAM COWPER

Spare feast! a radish and an egg.
WILLIAM COWPER

I was a stricken deer, that left the herd / Long since.
WILLIAM COWPER

Away went Gilpin, neck or naught, / Away went hat and wig!
WILLIAM COWPER

Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

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William Cowper

Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

William Cowper

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