The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
WILLIAM COWPERNo traveler e’er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.
More William Cowper Quotes
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There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.
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They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.
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Blest be the art that can immortalize,–the art that baffles time’s tyrannic claim to quench it.
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While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend.
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After long drought when rains abundant fall, He hears the herbs and flowers rejoicing all.
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The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow, and when we lie down at night we may safely say to most of our troubles, “Ye have done your worst, and we shall see you no more.”
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An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.
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Some people are more nice than wise.
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The man to solitude accustom’d long, Perceives in everything that lives a tongue; Not animals alone, but shrubs and trees Have speech for him, and understood with ease,
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Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have oft-times no connection.
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God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.
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Built God a church and laughed His word to scorn.
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To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.
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The kindest and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear; And something, every day they live, To pity, and perhaps forgive.
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And natural in gesture; much impress’d Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too; affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men.
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The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth.
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What we admire we praise; and when we praise, Advance it into notice, that its worth Acknowledged, others may admire it too.
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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.
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A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
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Happy the man who sees a God employed in all the good and ills that checker life.
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The path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.
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Nor rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilirate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature.
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No traveler e’er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.
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But still remember, if you mean to please, To press your point with modesty and ease.
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We are never more in danger than when we think ourselves most secure, nor in reality more secure than when we seem to be most in danger.
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Restraining prayer, we cease to fight; Prayer keeps the Christian’s armor bright; And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.
WILLIAM COWPER