Frasi di William Cowper

pagina 6

“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.”

“Candid, and generous, and just,
Boys care but little whom they trust,
An error soon corrected—
For who but learns in riper years
That man, when smoothest he appears
Is most to be suspected?”

“What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.”

“The sounding jargon of the schools.”

“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.”

“And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.”

“Lights of the world, and stars of human race.”

“Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.”

“Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.”

“A hat not much the worse for wear.”

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

“Whoe'er was edified, themselves were not.”

“True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd.”

“I believe no man was ever scolded out of his sins.”

“Religion! what treasure untold
Resides in that heavenly word!”

“There goes the parson, O illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.”

“But oars alone can ne'er prevail
To reach the distant coast;
The breath of Heaven must swell the sail,
Or all the toil is lost.”

“Some must be great. Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,
That lifts him into life, and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.”

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

“Misses! the tale that I relate
This lesson seems to carry —
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.”

“The Frenchman's darling.”

“We have no slaves at home. ─ Then why abroad?”

“My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.”

“Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they.
Such the bard's prophetic words,
Pregnant with celestial fire,
Bending as he swept the chords
Of his sweet but awful lyre.”