William Cowper (1731–1800) quotations:
~ “Happiness depends, as Nature shows, / Less on exterior things than most suppose.”
~ “Manner is all in all, whate’er is writ, / The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.”
~ “ Nature, exerting an unwearied power, / Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower; / Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads / The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads.”
~ “A fool must now and then be right by chance.”
~ “His wit invites you by his looks to come, / But when you knock, it never is at home.”
~ “Our wasted oil unprofitably burns, / Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.”
~ “An idler is a watch that wants both hands, / As useless if it goes as if it stands.”
~ “I am monarch of all I survey, / My right there is none to dispute.”
~ “O Solitude! where are the charms / That sages have seen in thy face?”
~ “There goes the parson, O illustrious spark! / And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.”
~ “The path of sorrow, and that path alone, / Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.”
