May I a small house and large garden have; And a few friends, And many books, both true.
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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Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil wars create.
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To 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.
ABRAHAM COWLEY -
Books should, not Business, entertain the Light; And Sleep, as undisturb’d as Death, the Night.
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I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that
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Ah! Wretched and too solitary he who loves not his own company.
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Thus each extreme to equal danger tends, Plenty, as well as Want, can sep’rate friends.
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Acquaintance I would have, but when it depends; not on number, but the choice of friends.
ABRAHAM COWLEY -
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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Come, my best Friends! my Books! and lead me on.
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Happy insect! what can be In happiness compared to thee? Fed with nourishment divine, The dewy morning’s gentle wine!
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Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces, and yet so humble too as not to scorn the meanest country cottages.
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The Sunflow’r, thinking ’twas for him foul shame To nap by daylight, strove t’ excuse the blame
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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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The motions strait, and round, and swift, and slow, And short and long, were mixt and woven so, Did in such artful Figures smoothly fall, As made this decent measur’d dance of all. And this is Musick.
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Does not the passage of Moses and the Israelites into the Holy Land yield incomparably more poetic variety than the voyages of Ulysses or Aeneas?
ABRAHAM COWLEY






