Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa around, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in.

— William Cowper

William Cowper Quotes

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

— William Cowper

As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon, So sophistry, cleaves close to, and protects Sin’s rotten trunk, concealing its defects.

— William Cowper

Some people are more nice than wise.

— William Cowper

I am out of humanity’s reach.

— William Cowper

There is a mixture of evil in everything we do; indulgence encourages us to encroach, while we Crabbe exercise the rights of children, we become childish.

— William Cowper

When all within is peace How nature seems to smile Delights that never cease The live-long day beguile.

— William Cowper

The path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.

— William Cowper

I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews bought and sold have ever earn’d.

— William Cowper

Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger’s treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold; but, though theirs they have enroll’d me, minds are never to be sold.

— William Cowper

Hast thou not learnd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, That no success attends on spears and swords Unblest, and that the battle is the Lords?

— William Cowper

Words learn’d by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse, Not more distinct from harmony divine The constant creaking of a country sign.

— William Cowper

The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow.

— William Cowper

But war’s a game, which, were their subjects wise, Kings should not play at. Nations would do well To extort their truncheons from the puny hands Of heroes, whose infirm and baby minds Are gratified with mischief, and who spoil, Because men suffer it, their toy the world.

— William Cowper

We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree.

— William Cowper

Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.

— William Cowper

Ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touch’d by the Midas finger of the state, Bleed gold for ministers to sport away. Drink, and be mad then; ’tis your country bids!

— William Cowper

Blest be the art that can immortalize.

— William Cowper

It is only the inexperienced and thoughtless who find pleasure in killing fish for the mere sake of killing them. No sportsman does this.

— William Cowper Prime

There is no more graceful and healthful accomplishment for a lady than fly-fishing, and there is no reason why a lady should not in every respect, rival a gentleman in the gentle art.

— William Cowper Prime

Stalking along from log to log, or plunging their long legs in the oozy swamp, two large herons paid no attention to my presence, but occupied themselves with their own fishing arrangements, as if their wilderness were their own.

— William Cowper Prime
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