From Anacreon, vii. Gold; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Works
The Motto
Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley:
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Famous Abraham Cowley Quotes
Virgil, Georgics, book ii, line 458; in The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley, The Fifth Edition (London, 1678), p. 105
“Charm'd with the foolish whistling of a name.”
Virgil, Georgics, book ii, line 72; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Ravish'd with the whistling of a name", Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, epistle iv, line 281.
Of Solitude, vii; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Book I, lines 33-40
Davideis (1656)
“The fairest garden in her looks,
And in her mind the wisest books.”
The Garden, i; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Abraham Cowley Quotes about God
Book I, lines 451-464
Davideis (1656)
“God the first garden made, and the first city Cain.”
The Garden, ii; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Abraham Cowley Quotes about life
“His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might
Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right.”
On the Death of Crashaw; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, He can't be wrong whose life is in the right", Alexander Pope, Essay on Man, epilogue iii, line 303.
“Thus would I double my life's fading space;
For he that runs it well, runs twice his race.”
Discourse xi, Of Myself, stanza xi; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "For he lives twice who can at once employ / The present well, and ev'n the past enjoy", Alexander Pope, Imitation of Martial.
“Life is an incurable disease.”
To Dr. Scarborough; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Abraham Cowley Quotes
“In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty.”
The Garden, Preface
Context: I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life only to the culture of them and the study of nature.
And there (with no design beyond my wall) whole and entire to lie, In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty.
Book I, lines 483-486
Davideis (1656)
“Unable to corrupt, seek to destroy;
And where their Poysons miss, the Sword employ.”
Book I, lines 105-106
Davideis (1656)
“The monster London laugh at me.”
Of Solitude, xi; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Here Lucifer the mighty Captive reigns;
Proud, 'midst his Woes, and Tyrant in his Chains.”
Book I, lines 91-92
Davideis (1656)
“Hope, of all ills that men endure,
The only cheap and universal cure.”
The Mistress. For Hope; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“He saw the beauties of his shape and face,
His female sweetness, and his manly grace”
Book I, lines 109-110
Davideis (1656)
From Anacreon, ii. Drinking; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape
Who dost in every country change thy shape!”
"Beauty," complete poem in The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper, Samuel Johnson ed., vol. 7, p. 115.
“Words that weep and tears that speak.”
The Prophet; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn", Thomas Gray, Progress of Poesy, iii. 3, 4.
From Anacreon, ii. Drinking; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
The Waiting Maid; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Book I, lines 49-60
Davideis (1656)
“Thus each extream to equal danger tends,
Plenty as well as Want can separate Friends;”
Book III, lines 205-206
Davideis (1656)
“What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the age to come my own?”
The Motto; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all,
Both the great vulgar and the small.”
Horace, book iii, Ode 1; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“His time is forever, everywhere his place.”
Friendship in Absence; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Poem: A Supplication http://www.bartleby.com/106/102.html.
On the Death of Mr. William Harvey; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.”
Book I, lines 361-362
See also "One of our poets (which is it?) speaks of an everlasting now", Robert Southey, The Doctor, chap. xxv. p. 1
Davideis (1656)
“Ev'en Thou my breast with such blest rage inspire,
As mov'd the tuneful strings of Davids Lyre”
Book I, lines 25-26
Davideis (1656)
“We griev'd, we sigh'd, we wept; we never blush'd before.”
Discourse concerning the Government of Oliver Cromwell; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair,
And fell adown his shoulders with loose care.”
Book II, lines 801-802
Compare: "Loose his beard and hoary hair / Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air", Thomas Gray, The Bard, i. 2
Davideis (1656)
