William Cowper

It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam, excels a dunce that has been kept at home.

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more.

A glory gilds the sacred page, majestic like the sun, it gives a light to every age, it gives, but borrows none.

Beware of desperate steps the darkest day lived till tomorrow will have passed away.

God made the country and man made the town.

O solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place.

O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?

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

A fool must now and then be right, by chance.

Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.

Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend.

Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.

Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze.

Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.

Grief is itself a medicine.

I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute, From the centre all round to the sea, I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

Tea- the cups that cheer but not inebriate.

Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.

Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.

The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.

Scenes must be beautiful which daily viewd. Please daily and whose novelty survives .Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years.

God made the country, and man made the town.

Absence from whom we love is worse than death, and frustrates hope severer than despair.

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

Absence from whom we love is worse than death.

The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul bawled out, Well done! As loud as he could bawl.

Whoso seeks an audit here propitious, pays his tribute, game or fish, wild fowl or venison, and his errand speeds.

Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.

The parson knows enough who knows a Duke.

Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

No one was ever scolded out of their sins.

Ceremony leads her bigots forth prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths on which eternal things depend can hardly find a single.

There is a bird who by his coat And by the hoarseness of his note Might be supposed a crow.

Where men of judgment creep and feel their way, The positive pronounce without dismay.

A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.

Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.

Skins may differ but affection Dwells in white and black the same.

Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.

Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.

A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied by ceaseless sharp corrosion a temper passionate and fierce may suddenly your joys disperse at one immense explosion.

No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.

They whom truth and wisdom lead, can gather honey from a weed.

Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time.

No wild enthusiast could rest, till half the world like him was possessed.

Meditation here may think down hours to moments. Here the heart may give a useful lesson to the head and learning wiser grow without his books.

An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting.

And the tear that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.

The darkest day, if you live till tomorrow, will have passed away.

The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.

The Cross There and there only though the deist rave and the atheist if Earth bears so base a slave There and there only is the power to save.

Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

Remorse the fatal egg that pleasure laid.

Glory built on selfish principles is shame and guilt.

It is a general rule of Judgment, that a mischief should rather be admitted than an inconvenience.

The bird that flutters least is longest on the wing.

Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.

God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.

Pleasure is labour too, and tires as much.

Nor rural sights alone but rural sounds exhilirate the spirit and restore the tone of languid nature.