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Quotes from Conversation — William Cowper

1731–1800 England

← All quotes by William Cowper

19 quotes

A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me, and no other can.

Conversation (1782)

That good diffused may more abundant grow.

Conversation (1782)

His wit invites you by his looks to come,
But when you knock it never is at home.

Conversation (1782)

A fool must now and then be right by chance.

Conversation (1782)

Tis hard if all is false that I advance,
A fool must now and then be right by chance.

Conversation (1782)

I cannot talk with civet in the room,
A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume.

Conversation (1782)

He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.

Conversation (1782)

Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,
Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.

Conversation (1782)

The solemn fog; significant and budge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.

Conversation (1782)

But that disease when soberly defined
Is the false fire of an o'erheated mind.

Conversation (1782)

Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,
Unfriendly to society's chief joys,
Thy worst effect is banishing for hours
The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

Conversation (1782)

The solemn fop; significant and budge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.

Conversation (1782)

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.

Conversation (1782)

The pipe, with solemn interposing puff,
Makes half a sentence at a time enough;
The dozing sages drop the drowsy strain,
Then pause, and puff—and speak, and pause again.

Conversation (1782)

Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse,
But talking is not always to converse,
Not more distinct from harmony divine
The constant creaking of a country sign.

Conversation (1782)

But Conversation, choose what theme we may,
And chiefly when religion leads the way,
Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs,
Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers.

Conversation (1782)

They fix attention, heedless of your pain,
With oaths like rivets forced into the brain;
And e'en when sober truth prevails throughout,
They swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt.

Conversation (1782)

A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct;
The language plain, and incidents well link’d;
Tell not as new what ev’ry body knows;
And, new or old, still hasten to a close.

Conversation (1782)

A story, in which native humour reigns,
Is often useful, always entertains;
A graver fact, enlisted on your side,
May furnish illustration, well applied;
But sedentary weavers of long tales
Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails.

Conversation (1782)

Attribution

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