From reveries so airy, from the toil / Of dropping buckets into empty wells, / And growing old in drawing nothing up.


William Cowper

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O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?
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The life of ease is a difficult pursuit.
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A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feeling, will ...
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The darkest day, If you live till tomorrow will have past away.
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Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.
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No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.
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I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?
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Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
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Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.
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It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.
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Fanaticism soberly defined, is the false fire of an over heated mind.
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A fool must now and then be right, by chance.
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Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.
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Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
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The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.
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Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
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Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.
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The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.
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No one was ever scolded out of their sins.
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With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spad...
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Toil for the brave! The brave that are no more.
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The church-going bell.
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How soft the music of those village bells, Falling at interval upon the ear In cadence sweet; ...
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None but an author knows an author's cares, Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears.
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Words pregnant with celestial fire.
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Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.
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Silently as a dream the fabric rose; No sound of hammer or of saw was there.
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Now let us sing, long live the king.
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Me therefore studious of laborious ease.
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Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd.
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The sounding jargon of the schools.
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Seek to delight, that they may mend mankind. And, while they captivate, inform the mind.
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Once more I would adopt the graver style -- a teacher should be sparing of his smile.
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Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?
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Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home.
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While fancy, like the finger of a clock, Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.
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Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.
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When admirals extoll'd for standing still, Of doing nothing with a deal of skill.
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Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
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An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.
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Where tempests never beat nor billows roar.
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Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.
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Dream after dream ensues; And still they dream that they shall still succeed; And still are di...
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Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.
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An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting
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Glory built on selfish principles is shame and guilt.
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Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.
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Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.
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They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.
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The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul bawled out, Well d...
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A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun, It gives a light to every age, It ...
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Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; T...
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All zeal for a reform, that gives offence To peace and charity, is mere pretence.
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A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
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God moves in mysterious ways
His wonders to performs
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That good diffused may more abundant grow.
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. . . glory built On selfish principles is shame and guilt.
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God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, an...
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Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face.
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'Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours.
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Prison'd in a parlour snug and small, Like bottled wasps upon a southern wall.
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Transforms old print To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes Of gallery critics by a thousan...
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The priest he merry is, and blithe Three-quarters of a year, But oh! it cuts him like a scyth...
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A kick that scarce would move a horse, May kill a sound divine.
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The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry...
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There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
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Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.
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I was a stricken deer that left the herd Long since.
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His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
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Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule.
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What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching...
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Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head...
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Our wasted oil unprofitably burns, Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.
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Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you h...
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'Twere better to be born a stone Of ruder shape, and feeling none, Than with a tenderness like...
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The earth was made so various, that the mind of desultory man, studious of change, and pleased with ...
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. . . Philologists, who chase A painting syllable through time and space Start it at home, and...
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Fast-anchor'd isle.
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Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.
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All learned, and all drunk!
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Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct l...
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A hat not much worse for wear.
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His head, Not yet by time completely silver'd o'er, Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish yo...
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Some to the fascination of a name, Surrender judgment hoodwinked.
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Exactness is the sublimity of fools. [Fr., L'exactitude est le sublime des sots.]
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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