Top 200 William Cowper Quotes (2024 Update)
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201. “Without one friend, above all foes, Britannia gives the world repose.”

— William Cowper

202. “But many a crime deemed innocent on earth Is registered in Heaven; and these no doubt Have each their record, with a curse annex’d.”

— William Cowper

203. “We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder lean.”

— William Cowper

204. “O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!”

— William Cowper

205. “Books are not seldom talismans and spells.”

— William Cowper

206. “We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree.”

— William Cowper

207. “Call’d to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home; He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam.”

— William Cowper

208. “Hast thou not learnd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, That no success attends on spears and swords Unblest, and that the battle is the Lords?”

— William Cowper

209. “No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.”

— William Cowper

210. “But conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should flow, like waters after summer show’rs, Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers.”

— William Cowper

211. “No one was ever scolded out of their sins.”

— William Cowper

212. “It is a terrible thought, that nothing is ever forgotten; that not an oath is ever uttered that does not continue to vibrate through all times, in the wide spreading current of sound; that not a prayer is lisped, that its record is not to be found st.”

— William Cowper

213. “A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion; a temper passionate and fierce may suddenly your joys disperse at one immense explosion.”

— William Cowper

214. “But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease.”

— William Cowper

215. “Far happier are the dead methinks than they who look for death and fear it every day.”

— William Cowper

216. “Events of all sorts creep or fly exactly as God pleases.”

— William Cowper

217. “Ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touch’d by the Midas finger of the state, Bleed gold for ministers to sport away. Drink, and be mad then; ’tis your country bids!”

— William Cowper

218. “The art of poetry is to touch the passions, and its duty to lead them on the side of virtue.”

— William Cowper

219. “That good diffused may more abundant grow.”

— William Cowper

220. “Most satirists are indeed a public scourge; Their mildest physic is a farrier’s purge; Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr’d, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, By lean despair upon an empty purse.”

— William Cowper

221. “Ages elapsed ere Homer’s lamp appear’d, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard: To carry nature lengths unknown before, To give a Milton birth, ask’d ages more.”

— William Cowper

222. “Where thou art gone, adieus and farewells are a sound unknown.”

— William Cowper

223. “Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.”

— William Cowper

224. “He that has seen both sides of fifty has lived to little purpose if he has no other views of the world than he had when he was much younger.”

— William Cowper

225. “Religion, richest favor of the skies.”

— William Cowper

226. “Great offices will have great talents.”

— William Cowper

227. “Heaven speed the canvas, gallantly unfurl’d, To furnish and accommodate a world, To give the Pole the produce of the sun, And knit the unsocial climates into one.”

— William Cowper

228. “Folly ends where genuine hope begins.”

— William Cowper

229. “When was public virtue to be found when private was not?”

— William Cowper

230. “The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.”

— William Cowper

231. “A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship’s finest feeling, will thrust a dagger at your breast, and say he wounded you in jest, by way of balm for healing.”

— William Cowper

232. “Did Charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love.”

— William Cowper