Abraham Cowley Quotes

Abraham Cowley offers lyrical, grand reflections on life and art that feel like a sunrise over a quiet field.

50 quotes

1. Fond archer, Hope! who tak'st thy aim so far, That still or short, or wide thine arrows are!

2. Why to mute fish should'st thou thyself discover And not to me, they no less silent lover?

3. To be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world

4. What shall I do to be forever known, And make the age to come my own?

5. His time is forever, everywhere his place.

6. We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine, But search of deep philosophy, Wit, eloquence, and poetry; Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine.

7. His faith, perhaps, in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his life, I 'm sure, was in the right.

8. The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks, and gapes for drink again; The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair.

9. Fill all the glasses there, for why Should every creature drink but I? Why, man of morals, tell me why?

10. A mighty pain to love it is, And 't is a pain that pain to miss; But of all pains, the greatest pain It is to love, but love in vain.

11. Hope, of all ills that men endure, The only cheap and universal cure.

12. Th' adorning thee with so much art Is but a barb'rous skill; 'T is like the pois'ning of a dart, Too apt before to kill.

13. Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal now does always last.

14. When Israel was from bondage led, Led by the Almighty's hand From out of foreign land, The great sea beheld and fled.

15. An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair, And fell adown his shoulders with loose care.

16. The monster London laugh at me.

17. Let but thy wicked men from out thee go, And all the fools that crowd thee so, Even thou, who dost thy millions boast, A village less than Islington wilt grow, A solitude almost.

18. The fairest garden in her looks, And in her mind the wisest books.

19. God the first garden made, and the first city Cain.

20. Hence, ye profane! I hate ye all, Both the great vulgar and the small.

21. Charm'd with the foolish whistling of a name.

22. Words that weep and tears that speak.

23. We griev'd, we sigh'd, we wept; we never blush'd before.

24. Thus would I double my life's fading space; For he that runs it well, runs twice his race.

25. Awake, awake, my Lyre! And tell thy silent master's humble tale In sounds that may prevail; Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire: Though so exalted she And I so lowly be Tell her, such different notes make all thy harmony.

26. Build yourself a book-nest to forget the world without.

27. Life is an incurable disease.

28. Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape Who dost in every country change thy shape!

29. The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of government; the liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions, as far as may consist with the laws of God and of his country.

30. I confess I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company, and a little feast.

31. The Sunflow'r, thinking 'twas for him foul shame To nap by daylight, strove t' excuse the blame; It was not sleep that made him nod, he said, But too great weight and largeness of his head.

32. Nothing is to come, and nothing past: But an eternal now, does always last.

33. We may talk what we please," he cries in his enthusiasm for the oldest of the arts, "of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles, in fields d'or or d'argent; but, if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms.

34. Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.

35. Stones of small worth may lie unseen by day, But night itself does the rich gem betray.

36. Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil wars create.

37. Poets by Death are conquer'd but the wit Of poets triumphs over it.

38. s a scene of changes, and to be constant in Nature were inconstancy.

39. May I a small house and large garden have; And a few friends, And many books, both true.

40. Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces, and yet so humble too as not to scorn the meanest country cottages.

41. Curs'd be that wretch (Death's factor sure) who brought Dire swords into the peaceful world, and taught Smiths (who before could only make The spade, the plough-share, and the rake) Arts, in most cruel wise Man's left to epitomize!

42. Ah! Wretched and too solitary he who loves not his own company.

43. Our yesterday's to-morrow now is gone, And still a new to-morrow does come on. We by to-morrow draw out all our store, Till the exhausted well can yield no more.

44. Man is too near all kinds of beasts,--a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vulture.

45. Hope is the most hopeless thing of all.

46. To-day is ours; what do we fear? To-day is ours; we have it here. Let's treat it kindly, that it may Wish, at least, with us to stay. Let's banish business, banish sorrow; To the gods belong to-morrow.

47. Much will always wanting be To him who much desires.

48. What a brave privilege is it to be free from all contentions, from all envying or being envied, from receiving or paying all kinds of ceremonies!

49. Acquaintance I would have, but when it depends; not on number, but the choice of friends.

50. This only grant me, that my means may lie, too low for envy, for contempt to high.