"I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
William Cowper, The Task, and Other Poems by William Cowper (1785)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Insect_suffering
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
William Cowper
William Cowper (26 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and hymnodist.
160 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Cowper →
Related Quotes
"Now let us sing, long live the king."
"Wer nicht mit mir ist, der ist wider mich."
"Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?"
"Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair."
"Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was."
"Man disobeys, and deity disowns me."
"Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets."
"But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toi…"
"Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, While meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely kno…"
"No dancing bear was so genteel Or half so dégagé."