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William Cowper on Religion

1731–1800 England

← All quotes by William Cowper

11 quotes

A kick that scarce would move a horse
May kill a sound divine.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

Sin let loose speaks punishment at hand.

I venerate the man whose heart is warm,
Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life,
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause.

The Task (1785)

Religion does not censure or exclude
Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.

Religion, if in heavenly truths attired,
Needs only to be seen to be admired.

He that negotiates between God and man,
As God's ambassador, the grand concerns
Of judgment and of mercy, should beware
Of lightness in his speech.

The Task (1785)

The priest he merry is, and blithe
Three-quarters of a year,
But oh! it cuts him like a scythe
When tithing time draws near.

Religion! what treasure untold
Resides in that heavenly word!

Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk (1782)

There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

Pity! Religion has so seldom found
A skilful guide into poetic ground!
The flowers would spring where'er she deign'd to stray
And every muse attend her in her way.

The things that mount the rostrum with a skip,
And then skip down again, pronounce a text,
Cry hem; and reading what they never wrote
Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work,
And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!

The Task (1785)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Cowper (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.