“The spleen is seldom felt where Flora reigns;
The low'ring eye, the petulance, the frown,
And sullen sadness, that o'ershade, distort,
And mar the face of beauty, when no cause
For such immeasurable woe appears;
These Flora banishes, and gives the fair
Sweet smiles, and bloom less transient than her own.”
Quote by William Cowper
“How! leap into the pit our life to save?
To save our life leap all into the grave.”
Source: Poems: In two volumes. Embellished with engravings, and a sketch of his life
“The rich are too indolent, the poor too weak, to bear the insupportable fatigue of thinking.”
“Those flimsy webs that break as soon as wrought, attain not to the dignity of thought.”
Source: The works ¬of William Cowper: Poems : with an essay on the genius and poetry of Cowper
“Sacred interpreter of human thought,
How few respect or use thee as they ought!
But all shall give account of every wrong,
Who dare dishonor or defile the tongue;
Who prostitute it in the cause of vice,
Or sell their glory at a market-price!”
Source: The Works of Cowper and Thompson: Including Many Letters and Poems Never Before Published in this Country. With a New and Interesting Memoir of the Life of Thomson
“Some men make gain a fountain, whence proceeds
A stream of liberal and heroic deeds;
The swell of pity, not to be confined
Within the scanty limits of the mind.”
Source: The Poetical Works of William Cowper
“All truth is precious, if not all divine; and what dilates the powers must needs refine.”
Source: The complete poetical works of William Cowper, with life and critical notice of his writings
“But what is truth? 'Twas Pilate's question put
To Truth itself, that deign'd him no reply.”
Source: The task, Table talk, and other poems: With critical observations of various authors on his genius and character, and notes, critical and illustrative
“I was a poet too; but modern taste
Is so refined and delicate and chaste,
That verse, whatever fire the fancy warms,
Without a creamy smoothness has no charms.
Thus, all success depending on an ear,
And thinking I might purchase it too dear,
If sentiment were sacrific'd to sound,
And truth cut short to make a period round,
I judg'd a man of sense could scarce do worse
Than caper in the morris-dance of verse.”
Source: Poems ... With a sketch of his life and a vindication of his religious principles and character. Third edition, corrected and enlarged. [With a portrait.]
“Vice stings us even in our pleasures, but virtue consoles us even in our pains.”
“Good sense, good health, good conscience, and good fame,--all these belong to virtue, and all prove that virtue has a title to your love.”
Source: The Works: Comprising His Poems, Correspondence and Translations : in Eight Volumes. ¬The poetical works, Vol. 1