William Cowper

"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."

"Now let us sing, long live the king."

"Wer nicht mit mir ist, der ist wider mich."

"Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair."

"But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost."

"Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets."

"Man disobeys, and deity disowns me."

"Fate steals along with silent tread, Found oftenest in what least we dread, Frowns in the storm with angry brow, But in the sunshine strikes the blow."

"'Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours."

"Regions Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway; Where his eagles never flew, None invincible as they."

"Ruffians, pitiless as proud, Heaven awards the vengeance due; Empire is on us bestowed, Shame and ruin wait for you."

"Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade, Apt emblem of a virtuous maid Silent and chaste she steals along, Far from the world's gay busy throng: With gentle yet prevailing force, Intent upon her destined course; Graceful and useful all she does, Blessing and blest where'er she goes; Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass, And Heaven reflected in her face."

"Candid, and generous, and just, Boys care but little whom they trust, An error soon corrected— For who but learns in riper years That man, when smoothest he appears Is most to be suspected?"

"Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own."

"Canst thou, and honour’d with a Christian name, Buy what is woman-born, and feel no shame? Trade in the blood of innocence, and plead Expedience as a warrant for the deed? So may the wolf, whom famine has made bold To quit the forest and invade the fold: So may the ruffian, who with ghostly glide, Dagger in hand, steals close to your bedside; Not he, but his emergence forced the door, He found it inconvenient to be poor."

"Old Tiney, the surliest of his kind! Who, nursed with tender care, And to domestic bounds confined, Was still a wild Jack hare.Though duly from my hand he took His pittance every night, He did it with a jealous look; And, when he could, would bite."

"When one that holds communion with the skies Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise, And once more mingles with us meaner things, 'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings."

"True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd."

"Let Charity forgive me a mistake, That zeal, not vanity, has chanced to make, And spare the poet for his subject’s sake."

"Thousands, careless of the damning sin, Kiss the book's outside who ne'er look within."

"The man that hails you Tom or Jack, And proves, by thumping on your back, His sense of your great merit, Is such a friend that one had need Be very much his friend indeed To pardon or to bear it."

"Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away."

"Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?"

"And differing judgments serve but to declare, That truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where."

"A knave, when tried on honesty's plain rule, And, when by that of reason, a mere fool."

"Oh, fond attempt to give a deathless lot To names ignoble, born to be forgot!"

"There goes the parson, O illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk."

"He has no hope that never had a fear."

"Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,— A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew."

"The sounding jargon of the schools."

"But what is man in his own proud esteem? Hear him, himself the poet and the theme; A monarch clothed with majesty and awe, His mind his kingdom and his will his law."

"Grief is itself a med'cine."

"Our severest winter, commonly called the spring."

"I believe no man was ever scolded out of his sins."

"Mr. Grenville squeezed me by the hand again, kissed the ladies, and withdrew. He kissed likewise the maid in the kitchen, and seemed upon the whole a most loving, kissing, kind-hearted gentleman."

"The poplars are felled, farewell to the shade And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade."

"An honest man, close-buttoned to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within."

"But truths on which depends our main concern, That 'tis our shame and mistery not to learn, Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a luster, he that runs may read."

"Public schools 'tis public folly feeds."

"The parson knows enough who knows a duke."

"Behold your bishop! well he plays his part, Christian in name, and infidel in heart, Ghostly in office, earthly in his plan, A slave at court, elsewhere a lady’s man. Dumb as a senator, and as a priest A piece of mere church furniture at best."

"Tenants of life’s middle state, Securely placed between the small and great."

"A worm is in the bud of youth, And at the root of age."

"Toll for the brave — The brave! that are no more; All sunk beneath the wave, Fast by their native shore!"

"And still to love, though prest with ill, In wintry age to feel no chill, With me is to be lovely still, My Mary!"

"Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing."

"My dog! what remedy remains, Since, teach you all I can, I see you, after all my pains, So much resemble man!"

"Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day (Live till tomorrow) will have passed away."

"Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry — Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry."

"Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, While meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray."