Frasi di William Cowper

“Di quando in quando uno sciocco deve pur azzeccarci, per combinazione.”

“Dio si muove in modo misterioso | Per compiere i suoi prodigi | Nel mare egli calca le sue impronte | E cavalca la tempesta.”

“La Natura è solo un nome per un effetto
La cui causa è Dio.”

“Le ricchezze hanno ali, e la magnificenza è un sogno.”

“Dio creò la campagna e l'uomo creò la città.”

“E il primo fabbro era il figlio del primo assassino.”

“Il papa ha reso il fare poesia una semplice arte meccanica.”

“Il parroco che conosce un duca ha abbastanza cognizioni.”

“Il rimorso è l'uovo fatale deposto dal piacere in ogni petto dove si è fatto il nido.”

“Ma la sofferenza ancor ama scoprire
La propria immagine nei casi altrui.”

“Sospendere il giudizio serve solo a dichiarare che la verità sta da qualche parte. Se solo sapessimo dove.”

“Tu Stampa, dea della nostra idolatria.”

“Un uomo che fa chiasso ha sempre ragione.”

“Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumor of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more.”

“Silently as a dream the fabric rose —
No sound of hammer or of saw was there.”

“Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more.”

“Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway”

“Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre.”

“O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.”

“It seems idolatry with some excuse,
When our forefather Druids in their oaks
Imagined sanctity.”

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

“I play with syllables and sport in song”

“Great contest follows, and much learned dust
Involves the combatants; each claiming truth,
And truth disclaiming both.”

“Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade,
Apt emblem of a virtuous maid
Silent and chaste she steals along,
Far from the world's gay busy throng:
With gentle yet prevailing force,
Intent upon her destined course;
Graceful and useful all she does,
Blessing and blest where'er she goes;
Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass,
And Heaven reflected in her face.”

“Dream after dream ensues;
And still they dream that they shall still succeed;
And still are disappointed.”

“The dogs did bark, the children screamed,
Up flew the windows all;
And every soul cried out, "Well done!"
As loud as he could bawl.”

“But the sound of the church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard;
Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Or smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.”

“The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.”

“Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free!
They touch our country, and their shackles fall.”

“A knave, when tried on honesty's plain rule,
And, when by that of reason, a mere fool”

“Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.”

“Low ambition and the thirst of praise.”

“Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is God.”

“What is it but a map of busy life,
Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?”

“Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has survived the fall!”

“Doing good,
Disinterested good, is not our trade.”

“Give what Thou canst, without Thee we are poor;
And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.”

“A business with an income at its heels
Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.”

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

“There is mercy in every place,
And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace
And reconciles man to his lot.”

“Built God a church, and laugh'd his word to scorn.”

“Thou wast a bauble once; a cup and ball,
Which babes might play with; and the thievish jay
Seeking her food, with ease might have purloined
The auburn nut that held thee, swallowing down
Thy yet close-folded latitude of boughs
And all thine embryo vastness at a gulp.
But fate thy growth decreed.”