Quotes from William Cowper

Such stuff the world is made of.

A noisy man is always in the right.

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

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, and wisdom falls before exterior grace.

The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile.

Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.

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

I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, OF needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.

Oh, most degrading of all ills that wait On man, a mourner in his best estate! All other sorrows virtue may endure, And find submission more than half a cure; Grief is itself a medicine, and bestow'd T' improve the fortitude that bears the load, To teach the wanderer, as his woes increase, The path of wisdom, all whose paths are peace...

The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.

No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much wisdom is humble that it knows no more.

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 ordained to fill.

A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.

He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech.

I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life, Coincident, exhibit lucid proof That he is honest in the sacred cause.

If my resolution to be a great man was half so strong as it is to despise the shame of being a little one.

O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?

Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.

God made the country, and man made the town.

Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilarate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature.

Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.