585 Quotes by William Cowper

Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,And, while the bubbling and loud hissing urnThrows up a steamy column and the cupsThat cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,So let us welcome peaceful ev'ning in.

God moves in mysterious waysHis wonders to performs

Man disavows, and Deity disowns me;Hell might afford my miseries a shelter;Therefore Hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths allBolted against me.Hard lot! encompassed with a thousand dangers,Weary, faint, trembling with a thousand terrors,I'm called, if vanquished, to receive a sentenceWorse than Abiram's.Him the vindictive rod of angry JusticeSent quick and howling to the centre headlong;I, fed with judgement, in a fleshy tomb, amBuried above ground.

Books are not seldom talismans and spells.

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleasedWith melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave;Some chord in unison with what we hearIs touch'd within us, and the heart replies.

If the world like it not, so much the worse for them.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,The clouds ye so much dreadAre big with mercy and shall breakIn blessings on your head.

Nay,--conduct hath the loudest tongue. The voiceIs but an instrument on which the priestMay play what tune he pleases. In the deed, The unequivocal authentic deed, We find sound argument, and read the heart.

But it is a sort of April-weather life that we lead in this world. A little sunshine is generally the prelude to a storm.