William Cowper: Trending quotes

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William Cowper: 348 quotes8 likes

“I cannot talk with civet in the room,
A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume.”

Source: Conversation (1782), Line 283.

“Whoe'er was edified, themselves were not.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 444.

“True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd.”

"Charity", line 573. (1781).

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

Letter to John Newton, (17 June 1783).

“Religion! what treasure untold
Resides in that heavenly word!”

Source: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk (1782), Line 25.

“There goes the parson, O illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.”

On observing some Names of Little Note.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of Heaven must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.”

"Human Frailty", line 21 (1779).

“Some must be great. Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,
That lifts him into life, and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 788.

“Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,
The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.”

Source: Table Talk (1782), Line 542.

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

"Pairing Time Anticipated, Moral" (c. 1794).

“The Frenchman's darling.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 765.

“We have no slaves at home. ─ Then why abroad?”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 37.

“My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.”

Source: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk (1782), Line 37

“Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they.
Such the bard's prophetic words,
Pregnant with celestial fire,
Bending as he swept the chords
Of his sweet but awful lyre.”

Source: "Boadicea" (1782)