Books should, not Business, entertain the Light; And Sleep, as undisturb’d as Death, the Night.
ABRAHAM COWLEYTo be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world; or rather, a retreat from the world, as it is man’s, into the world, as it is God’s.
More Abraham Cowley Quotes
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For the whole world, without a native home, Is nothing but a prison of larger room.
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Fill the bowl with rosy wine, around our temples roses twine, And let us cheerfully awhile, like wine and roses, smile.
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Curiosity does, no less than devotion, pilgrims make.
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Man is too near all kinds of beasts,–a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vulture.
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Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise As praises from the men, whom all men praise.
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Nay, in death’s hand, the grape-stone proves As strong as thunder is in Jove’s.
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Let’s banish business, banish sorrow; To the gods belong to-morrow.
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Coy Nature, (which remain’d, though aged grown, A beauteous virgin still, enjoy’d by none, Nor seen unveil’d by anyone),
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Lukewarmness I account a sin, as great in love as in religion.
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Why dost thou heap up wealth, which thou must quit, Or what is worse, be left by it? Why dost thou load thyself when thou ‘rt to fly, Oh, man! ordain’d to die?
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Enjoy the present hour, Be thankful for the past, And neither fear nor wish Th’ approaches of the last.
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All this world’s noise appears to me a dull, ill-acted comedy!
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This a scene of changes, and to be constant in Nature were inconstancy.
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It is a hard and nice subject for a man to speak of himself: it grates his own heart to say anything of disparagement, and the reader’s ear to hear anything of praise from him.
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Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape Who dost in every country change thy shape!
ABRAHAM COWLEY