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Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise,
He who defers this work from day to day,
Does on a river's bank expecting stay,
Till the whole stream, which stopped him, should be gone,
That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on.

— Abraham Cowley

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Time

More quotes by Abraham Cowley

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.

Poems (1656)

His time is forever, everywhere his place.

Works (1668)

An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair,
And fell adown his shoulders with loose care.

Poems (1656)

What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the age to come my own?

Poems (1656)

The fairest garden in her looks,
And in her mind the wisest books.

Works (1668)

All Abraham Cowley quotes →

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You can never plan the future by the past.

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The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die.

Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Abraham Cowley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.