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 COWLEYI never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that
More Abraham Cowley Quotes
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The getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey.
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Why to mute fish should’st thou thyself discoverAnd not to me, thy no less silent lover?
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Water and air He for the Tenor chose, Earth made the Base, the Treble Fame arose,
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Neither the praise nor the blame is our own.
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Why dost thou build up stately rooms on high, Thou who art under ground to lie? Thou sow’st and plantest, but no fruit must see, For death, alas! is reaping thee.
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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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What a brave privilege is it to be free from all contentions, from all envying or being envied, from receiving or paying all kinds of ceremonies!
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What shall I do to be for ever known, And make the age to come my own?
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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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“We may talk what we please,” he cries in his enthusiasm for the oldest of the arts, “of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles
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Unbind the charms that in slight fables lie and teach that truth is truest poesy.
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Ah, yet, e’er I descend to th’ grave, May I a small House and a large Garden have. And a few Friends, and many Books both true
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A mighty pain to love it is, And ’tis a pain that pain to miss; But, of all pains, the greatest pain Is to love, but love in vain.
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Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal Now does always last.
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But what is woman? Only one of nature’s agreeable blunders.
ABRAHAM COWLEY