Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another’s pain.
WILLIAM COWPERDetested sport, That owes its pleasures to another’s pain.
WILLIAM COWPERReasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.
WILLIAM COWPERThe path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.
WILLIAM COWPERWhen nations are to perish in their sins, ’tis in the Church the leprosy begins.
WILLIAM COWPERSatire is, more than those he brands, to blame; He hides behind a magisterial air He own offences, and strips others’ bare.
WILLIAM COWPERWhat peaceful hours I once enjoy’d! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void The world can never fill.
WILLIAM COWPERPride made the devil, and the devil made sin; So God made a cole-pit to put the devil in.
WILLIAM COWPERPerhaps thou gav’st me, though unseen, a kiss; Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss.
WILLIAM COWPERAfter long drought when rains abundant fall, He hears the herbs and flowers rejoicing all.
WILLIAM COWPERThere is in souls a sympathy with sounds: And as the mind is pitch’d the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch’d within us, and the heart replies.
WILLIAM COWPERTis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume; And we are weeds without it.
WILLIAM COWPERThe 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.”
WILLIAM COWPERThe only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth.
WILLIAM COWPERThus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.
WILLIAM COWPERTruth is the golden girdle of the globe.
WILLIAM COWPERAbsence of occupation is not rest.
WILLIAM COWPER