William Cowper

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

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“No one was ever scolded out of their sins.”

“Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.”

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

“No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.”

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

“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.”

“The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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