Quote #45

I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, Of needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace.

More from William Cowper

  1. His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock it never is at home.
  2. Our wasted oil unprofitably burns, Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.
  3. The solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.
  4. But that disease when soberly defined Is the false fire of an o'erheated mind.
  5. I cannot talk with civet in the room, A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume.
  6. But Conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs, Not as …
  7. Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys, Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose pre…
  8. A business with an income at its heels Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.

All William Cowper quotes