William Cowper: Mind

William Cowper was (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist. Explore interesting quotes on mind.

William Cowper: 348 quotes8 likes

“The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book I, The Sofa, Line 506.

“Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one,
Have oft-times no connexion, Knowledge dwells
in heads replete with thoughts of other men,
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book VI, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 88.

“There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;
And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased
With melting airs or martial, brisk, or grave:
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touched within us, and the heart replies.
How soft the music of those village bells
Falling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet!”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book VI, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 1.

“Forced from home and all its pleasures
Afric's coast I left forlorn,
To increase a stranger's treasures
O'er the raging billows borne.
Men from England bought and sold me,
Paid my price in paltry gold;
But, though slave they have enrolled me,
Minds are never to be sold.”

Source: The Negro's Complaint (1788), Lines 1-8

“Though on pleasure she was bent,
She had a frugal mind.”

St. 8.
The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1785)

“England, with all thy faults, I love thee still—
My country! and, while yet a nook is left
Where English minds and manners may be found,
Shall be constrained to love thee.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 206.

“Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.”

William Cowper Retirement

Source: Retirement (1782), Line 623.

“How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its flight
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift-winged arrows of light.”

Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“But that disease when soberly defined
Is the false fire of an o'erheated mind.”

Source: Conversation (1782), Line 667; of fanaticism.