There have been fewer friends on earth than kings.
ABRAHAM COWLEYThere have been fewer friends on earth than kings.
ABRAHAM COWLEYNay, in death’s hand, the grape-stone proves As strong as thunder is in Jove’s.
ABRAHAM COWLEYIt was not sleep that made him nod, he said, But too great weight and largeness of his head.
ABRAHAM COWLEYNothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise As praises from the men, whom all men praise.
ABRAHAM COWLEYMuch will always wanting be To him who much desires.
ABRAHAM COWLEYLife for delays and doubts no time does give, None ever yet made haste enough to live.
ABRAHAM COWLEYI would not fear nor wish my fate, but boldly say each night, to-morrow let my sun his beams display, or in clouds hide them; I have lived today.
ABRAHAM COWLEYMan 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.
ABRAHAM COWLEYNature waits upon thee still, And thy verdant cup does fill; ‘Tis fill’d wherever thou dost tread, Nature’s self’s thy Ganymede.
ABRAHAM COWLEYOur yesterday’s to-morrow now is gone, And still a new to-morrow does come on. We by to-morrow draw out all our store, Till the exhausted well can yield no more.
ABRAHAM COWLEYDoes 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 COWLEYEnjoy the present hour, Be thankful for the past, And neither fear nor wish Th’ approaches of the last.
ABRAHAM COWLEYAll the world’s bravery that delights our eyes is but thy several liveries.
ABRAHAM COWLEYWhy 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?
ABRAHAM COWLEYWhy to mute fish should’st thou thyself discoverAnd not to me, thy no less silent lover?
ABRAHAM COWLEYHope is the most hopeless thing of all.
ABRAHAM COWLEY