A collection of quotes and thoughts by Abraham Cowley on poetry, love, pain, unappreciated, vain, friendship, reading, error, garden, age, inspiration and literary.
Abraham Cowley was an English poet who lived in the 17th century and is regarded as one of the most important poets of the period, who shaped the literary discourse of his time in a profound way. Cowley started off as a literary personality quite early in life and one of his earliest influences was ‘The Faerie Queene’, an incomplete epic poem. He was without doubt a child prodigy and composed his first epic titled ‘Tragicall History of Piramus’ and ‘Thisbe’, when he was only 10 years old. One of his most important contributions to the craft of writing a poem was the introduction of six line stanzas. By the time he was only 13, he had written two more two more poems titled ‘Constantia and Philetus’ and ‘Elegy on the Death of Dudley, Lord Carlton’. He became a well-known poet even before he had attained the age of 15 and for the rest of his career he continued to produce works of further poetic sophistication. Cowley freely expressed his views, thoughts and wrote on a variety of subjects in his poems. Here is a collection of some of his famous quotes and thoughts by Abraham Cowley from his life, writings, poems and works.
Man is too near all kinds of beasts,--a fawning dog, a roaring lion, a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembling crocodile, a treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vulture.
- Abraham Cowley
Poets by Death are conquer'd but the wit Of poets triumphs over it.
- Abraham Cowley
Nothing in Nature's sober found,
But an eternal Health goes round.
Fill up the Bowl then, fill it high--
Fill all the Glasses there; for why
Should every Creature Drink but I?
Why, Man of Morals, tell me why?
- Abraham Cowley
Who lets slip fortune, her shall never find: Occasion once past by, is bald behind.
- Abraham Cowley
What a brave privilege is it to be free from all contentions, from all envying or being envied, from receiving or paying all kinds of ceremonies!
- Abraham Cowley
The world's a scene of changes.
- Abraham Cowley
I would not fear nor wish my fate, but boldly say each night, to-morrow let my sun his beams display, or in clouds hide them; I have lived today.
- Abraham Cowley
There have been fewer friends on earth than kings.
- Abraham Cowley
Stones of small worth may lie unseen by day, But night itself does the rich gem betray.
- Abraham Cowley
The present is an eternal now.
- Abraham Cowley
Vain, weak-built isthmus, which dost proudly rise Up between two eternities!
- Abraham Cowley
Enjoy the present hour, Be thankful for the past, And neither fear nor wish Th' approaches of the last.
- Abraham Cowley
Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise As praises from the men, whom all men praise.
- Abraham Cowley
Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil wars create.
- Abraham Cowley
Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal Now does always last.
- Abraham Cowley
Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.
- Abraham Cowley
For the whole world, without a native home, Is nothing but a prison of larger room.
- Abraham Cowley
Life is an incurable disease.
- Abraham Cowley
Ere I descend to th' grave,
May I a small house and large garden have;
And a few friends, and many books.
- Abraham Cowley
Banish business, banish sorrow. To the gods belongs tomorrow.
- Abraham Cowley
What shall I do to be for ever known,
And make the age to come my own?
- Abraham Cowley
Ah yet, ere I descend to the grave, May I a small house and large garden have; And a few friends, and many books, both true, both wise and both delightful too.
- Abraham Cowley
Hope is the most hopeless thing of all.
- Abraham Cowley
Come, my best friends, my best books, and lead me on.
- Abraham Cowley
May I a small house and large garden have;
And a few friends,
And many books, both true.
- Abraham Cowley
A mighty pain to love it is,
And 't is a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.
- The Poems of Abraham Cowley, Abraham Cowley
I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that ... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature.
- Abraham Cowley
The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they have made themselves, under whatsoever form it be of government; the liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions, as far as may consist with the laws of God and of his country.
- Abraham Cowley
Curs'd be that wretch (Death's factor sure) who brought Dire swords into the peaceful world, and taught Smiths (who before could only make The spade, the plough-share, and the rake) Arts, in most cruel wise Man's left to epitomize!
- Abraham Cowley
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.
