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Quotes from Table Talk — William Cowper

1731–1800 England

← All quotes by William Cowper

15 quotes

Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows,
Less on exterior things than most suppose.

Table Talk (1782)

Glory, built
On selfish principles, is shame and guilt.

Table Talk (1782)

Elegant as simplicity, and warm
As ecstasy.

Table Talk (1782)

Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.

Table Talk (1782)

Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.

Table Talk (1782)

I play with syllables and sport in song.

Table Talk (1782)

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.

Table Talk (1782)

Admirals extolled for standing still,
Or doing nothing with a deal of skill.

Table Talk (1782)

And prate and preach about what others prove,
As if the world and they were hand and glove.

Table Talk (1782)

Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,
The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.

Table Talk (1782)

Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made,
To turn a penny in the way of trade.

Table Talk (1782)

As if the world and they were hand and glove.

Table Talk (1782)

Low ambition and the thirst of praise.

Table Talk (1782)

But he (his musical finesse was such,
So nice his ear, so delicate his touch)
Made poetry a mere mechanic art,
And ev'ry warbler has his tune by heart.

Table Talk (1782)

Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd,
And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard:
To carry nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.

Table Talk (1782)

Attribution

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