Abraham Cowley Quotes & Sayings

Our yesterday's to-morrow now is gone,
And still a new to-morrow does come on.
We by to-morrow draw out all our store,
Till the exhausted well can yield no more. — Abraham Cowley

This wretched Inn, where we scarce stay to bait,
We call our Dwelling-Place:
We call one Step a Race:
But angels in their full enlightened state,
Angels, who Live, and know what 'tis to Be,
Who all the nonsense of our language see
Who speak things, and our words, their ill-drawn pictures, scorn,
When we, by a foolish figure, say,
Behold an old man dead! then they
Speak properly, and cry, Behold a man-child born! — Abraham Cowley

Nothing so soon the drooping spirits can raise As praises from the men, whom all men praise. — 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. — Abraham Cowley

And I myself a Catholic will be,
So far at least, great saint, to pray to thee.
Hail, Bard triumphant! and some care bestow
On us, the Poets militant below. — 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

Curiosity does, no less than devotion, pilgrims make. — Abraham Cowley

Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil wars create. — Abraham Cowley

The Sunflow'r, thinking 'twas for him foul shame To nap by daylight, strove t' excuse the blame; It was not sleep that made him nod, he said, But too great weight and largeness of his head. — Abraham Cowley

Does not the passage of Moses and the Israelites into the Holy Land yield incomparably more poetic variety than the voyages of Ulysses or Aeneas? — Abraham Cowley

The monster London laugh at me. — 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

The present is all the ready money Fate can give. — Abraham Cowley

Acquaintance I would have, but when it depends; not on number, but the choice of friends. — Abraham Cowley

I confess I love littleness almost in all things. A little convenient estate, a little cheerful house, a little company, and a little feast ... — Abraham Cowley

Vain, weak-built isthmus, which dost proudly rise Up between two eternities! — Abraham Cowley

The getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey. — Abraham Cowley

Hope! fortune's cheating lottery; when for one prize an hundred blanks there be! — Abraham Cowley

Ah! Wretched and too solitary he who loves not his own company. — 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

It is a hard and nice subject for a man to speak of himself: it grates his own heart to say anything of disparagement, and the reader's ear to hear anything of praise from him. — Abraham Cowley

Water and air He for the Tenor chose,
Earth made the Base, the Treble Fame arose,
To th' active Moon a quick brisk stroke he gave,
To Saturn's string a touch more sore and grave.
The motions strait, and round, and swift, and slow,
And short and long, were mixt and woven so,
Did in such artful Figures smoothly fall,
As made this decent measur'd dance of all.
And this is Musick. — Abraham Cowley

Banish business, banish sorrow. To the gods belongs tomorrow. — Abraham Cowley

All this world's noise appears to me a dull, ill-acted comedy! — Abraham Cowley

Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces, and yet so humble too as not to scorn the meanest country cottages. — Abraham Cowley

For the whole world, without a native home, Is nothing but a prison of larger room. — Abraham Cowley

Hope! of all ills that men endure, the only cheap and universal cure. — Abraham Cowley

Coy Nature, (which remain'd, though aged grown,
A beauteous virgin still, enjoy'd by none,
Nor seen unveil'd by anyone),
When Harvey's violent passion she did see,
Began to tremble and to flee;
Took sanctuary, like Daphne, in a tree:
There Daphne's Lover stopped, and thought it much
The very leaves of her to touch:
But Harvey, our Apollo, stopp'd not so;
Into the Bark and Root he after her did go! — Abraham Cowley

God the first garden made, and the first city Cain. — Abraham Cowley

Lukewarmness I account a sin, as great in love as in religion. — Abraham Cowley

Happy insect! what can be In happiness compared to thee? Fed with nourishment divine, The dewy morning's gentle wine! Nature waits upon thee still, And thy verdant cup does fill; 'Tis fill'd wherever thou dost tread, Nature's self's thy Ganymede. — Abraham Cowley

Who lets slip fortune, her shall never find: Occasion once past by, is bald behind. — Abraham Cowley

"We may talk what we please," he cries in his enthusiasm for the oldest of the arts, "of lilies, and lions rampant, and spread eagles, in fields d'or or d'argent; but, if heraldry were guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be the most noble and ancient arms." — Abraham Cowley

Thus would I double my life's fading space;For he that runs it well, runs twice his race. — Abraham Cowley

To-day is ours; what do we fear?
To-day is ours; we have it here.
Let's treat it kindly, that it may
Wish, at least, with us to stay.
Let's banish business, banish sorrow;
To the gods belong to-morrow. — Abraham Cowley

Beauty, thou wild fantastic ape Who dost in every country change thy shape! — Abraham Cowley

Ah, yet, e'er I descend to th' grave, May I a small House and a large Garden have. And a few Friends, and many Books both true, Both wise, and both delightful too. And since Love ne'er will from me flee, A mistress moderately fair, And good as Guardian angels are, Only belov'd and loving me. — 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 present is an eternal now. — Abraham Cowley

Much will always wanting be
To him who much desires. — Abraham Cowley

Books should, not Business, entertain the Light;
And Sleep, as undisturb'd as Death, the Night. — Abraham Cowley

Build yourself a book-nest to forget the world without. — Abraham Cowley

His time's forever, everywhere his place. — Abraham Cowley

Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure. — Abraham Cowley

As for being much known by sight, and pointed out, I cannot comprehend the honor that lies withal; whatsoever it be, every mountebank has it more than the best doctor. — Abraham Cowley

Stones of small worth may lie unseen by day, But night itself does the rich gem betray. — Abraham Cowley

Why dost thou heap up wealth, which thou must quit,
Or what is worse, be left by it?
Why dost thou load thyself when thou 'rt to fly,
Oh, man! ordain'd to die?
Why dost thou build up stately rooms on high,
Thou who art under ground to lie?
Thou sow'st and plantest, but no fruit must see,
For death, alas! is reaping thee. — Abraham Cowley

What shall I do to be for ever known, And make the age to come my own? — Abraham Cowley

Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity. — 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

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

The tulip next appeared, all over gay, But wanton, full of pride, and full of play; The world can't show a dye but here has place; Nay, by new mixtures, she can change her face; Purple and gold are both beneath her care- The richest needlework she loves to wear; Her only study is to please the eye, And to outshine the rest in finery — Abraham Cowley

The world's a scene of changes, and to be constant, in nature were inconstancy. — Abraham Cowley

Neither the praise nor the blame is our own. — Abraham Cowley

Life for delays and doubts no time does give,
None ever yet made haste enough to live. — Abraham Cowley

May I a small house and large garden have;
And a few friends,
And many books, both true. — Abraham Cowley

Poets by Death are conquer'd but the wit Of poets triumphs over it. — Abraham Cowley

Enjoy the present hour, Be thankful for the past, And neither fear nor wish Th' approaches of the last. — Abraham Cowley

All the world's bravery that delights our eyes is but thy several liveries. — Abraham Cowley

Why to mute fish should'st thou thyself discoverAnd not to me, thy no less silent lover? — Abraham Cowley

Who that has reason, and his smell,
Would not among roses and jasmin dwell? — Abraham Cowley

Nay, in death's hand, the grape-stone proves
As strong as thunder is in Jove's. — Abraham Cowley

His faith perhaps in some nice tenets might be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was always in the right. — 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. — Abraham Cowley

Thus each extreme to equal danger tends, Plenty, as well as Want, can sep'rate friends. — Abraham Cowley

Come, my best friends, my best books, and lead me on. — Abraham Cowley

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

Let but thy wicked men from out thee go,
And all the fools that crowd thee so,
Even thou, who dost thy millions boast,
A village less than Islington wilt grow,
A solitude almost. — Abraham Cowley

Life is an incurable disease. — Abraham Cowley

Awake, awake, my Lyre!And tell thy silent master's humble taleIn sounds that may prevail;Sounds that gentle thoughts inspire:Though so exalted sheAnd I so lowly beTell her, such different notes make all thy harmony. — 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

Hope is the most hopeless thing of all. — Abraham Cowley

There have been fewer friends on earth than kings. — Abraham Cowley

This only grant me, that my means may lie too low for envy, for contempt too high. — Abraham Cowley

Unbind the charms that in slight fables lie and teach that truth is truest poesy. — Abraham Cowley

The world's a scene of changes. — 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

But what is woman? Only one of nature's agreeable blunders. — Abraham Cowley

To be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city; to be a philosopher, from the world; or rather, a retreat from the world, as it is man's, into the world, as it is God's. — Abraham Cowley

When Israel was from bondage led,Led by the Almighty's handFrom out of foreign land,The great sea beheld and fled. — Abraham Cowley

Nothing is to come, and nothing past: But an eternal now, does always last. — Abraham Cowley

Plenty, as well as Want, can separate friends. — Abraham Cowley

There is some help for all the defects of fortune; for, if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of them shorter. — Abraham Cowley

Fill the bowl with rosy wine, around our temples roses twine, And let us cheerfully awhile, like wine and roses, smile. — Abraham Cowley