Abraham Cowley Quotes

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

Come, my best friends, my best books, and lead me on. ~ 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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

Much will always wanting be
To him who much desires. ~ 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

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

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

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 only grant me, that my means may lie too low for envy, for contempt too high. ~ 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

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

There have been fewer friends on earth than kings. ~ 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

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

Curiosity does, no less than devotion, pilgrims make. ~ 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

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

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

Life is an incurable disease. ~ Abraham Cowley

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

Neither the praise nor the blame is our own. ~ 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Build yourself a book-nest to forget the world without. ~ 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The present is an eternal now. ~ Abraham Cowley

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

Why to mute fish should'st thou thyself discoverAnd not to me, thy no less silent lover? ~ 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 democracy of to-day hold the liberty of one man to be absolutely nothing when in conflict with another man's right of property...
This is a world of compensations; and he would -be- no slave must consent to -have- no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.
All honor to Jefferson - to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document, an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so embalm it there, that to-day, and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of re-appearing tyranny and oppression. Your obedient Servant,
[Abraham Lincoln]
April 6, 1859, in a letter to MA State Rep Henry L. Pierce
Springfield, Ill. ~ Abraham Lincoln

When I marched with Martin Luther King in Selma, I felt my legs were praying. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

With the catching end the pleasures of the chase. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Religion has become an impersonal affair, an institutional loyalty. It survives on the level of activities rather than in the stillness of commitment. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

Judge not, that ye be not judged. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Keep in touch without touching ~ Amit Abraham

When I got him out he was near froze solid and shivering. He was shaking so hard that I wasted half a glass of whiskey trying to aim it for his mouth. Must have got enough of it into him, though, since it did seem to bring him back to life. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Without Divine assistance I can not succeed; with it I can not fail. ~ Abraham Lincoln

I value science
none can prize it more,
It gives ten thousand motives to adore:
Be it religious, as it ought to be,
The heart it humbles, and it bows the knee. ~ Abraham Coles

Faith deals with the invisible things of God. It refuses to be ruled by the physical senses. Faith is able to say, 'You can do what you like, because I know God is going to take care of me. He has promised to bless me wherever he leads me.' Remember that even when every demon in hell stands against us, the God of Abraham remains faithful to all his promises. Jesus Christ can do anything but fail his own people who trust him. ~ Jim Cymbala

Art cannot be excused from following God's law, and art disgraces itself by seeking that freedom. Anything that cannot be put into an image or onto a canvas without demanding the sacrifice of modesty or injuring shame must simply be eschewed. Art is not autonomous. Art is one of the more refined human life expressions, and all these life expressions are organically related and stand continuously under God's ordinance. ~ Abraham Kuyper

The fact is, everyone is in sales. Whatever area you work in, you do have clients and you do need to sell. ~ Jay Abraham

As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. ~ Abraham Lincoln

I've learned that although our dreams may die, if you open yourself up to life, new ones are born. ~ Farrah Abraham

I don't believe in ghosts but they blindly believe in me ~ Amit Abraham

My favorite thought about Abraham Lincoln is he believed in two things: loving one another and working together to make this world better. ~ Mario Cuomo

Sermon of the Mounts

Matthew 5

AND SEEING THE MULTITUDES, HE WENT UP INTO A MOUNTAIN, AND WHEN HE WAS SET, HIS DISCIPLES CAME UNTO HIM

The Gospels starts in a very beautiful way.

The Bible is the book of the books. The meaning of the word "bible" is - the book.

It is the most precious and beautiful document that humanity has. These statements are the most beautiful ever made.

That is why it is called "The Testament", because Jesus has become the witness of God.

While Buddha's words are refined and philosophic, Jesus words are poetic, plain and simple.

The beginning of the Gospel of Matthew states that 42 generations have passed from Abraham, the founder of Judaism, to Jesus.

Jesus is the flowering, the fulfillment, of these 42 generations.

The whole history that has preceded Jesus is the fulfillment in him.

Jesus is the fruit, the growth, the evolution, of those 42 generations.

The path of Jesus is the path of love. Jesus moved among ordinary people, while Buddha - whose path is the path of meditation, intelligence and understanding - moved with sophisticated people, who was already on the spiritual path,

Jesus is the culmination of the whole Jewish consciousness, while Buddha was the culmination of the Hindu consciousness and Socrates was the culmination of the Greek consciousness.

But the strange things is t ~ Swami Dhyan Giten

Make your copy straightforward to read, understand and use. Use easy words; those that are used for everyday speech. Use phrases that are not too imprecise and very understandable. Do not be too stuffy; remove pompous words and substitute them with plain words. Minimize complicated gimmicks and constructions. If you can't give the data directly and briefly, you must consider writing the copy again. ~ Jay Abraham

My movies more often are told through pictures, not words. But in this case, the pictures took second position to the incredible words of Abraham Lincoln and his presence [ ... ] I was less interested in an outpouring of imagery than in letting the most human moment of this story evolve before us. ~ Steven Spielberg

Tangible language, which often tells more falsehoods than truths. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Half finished work generally proves to be labor lost. ~ Abraham Lincoln

We can consider the process of healthy growth to be a never ending series of free choice situations, confronting each individual at every point throughout his life, in which he must choose between the delights of safety and growth, dependence and independence, regression and progression, immaturity and maturity. ~ Abraham Maslow

All appreciations and praises are worthless unless the one you love appreciates ~ Amit Abraham

Abraham helped build their cabin and split rails for a fence, but he soon left home for good. The log cabin near Decatur was, I learned, the one that went on tour after the assassination. It was dismantled by John Hanks, Lincoln's second cousin, and taken to Chicago and then to Boston. The last sighting of it, as least as far as we can ascertain, was at P.T. Barnum's museum in New York. It was apparently lost at sea while being shipped to England. ~ Annie Leibovitz

There is another old poet whose name I do not now remember who said, 'Truth is the daughter of Time.' ~ Abraham Lincoln

Authors are sometimes like tomcats: They distrust all the other toms but they are kind to kittens. ~ Malcolm Cowley

There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine! ~ Abraham Kuyper

All authority of governments on earth originates from the Sovereignty of God alone. ~ Abraham Kuyper

A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. ~ Abraham Lincoln

The great lesson is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one's daily life, in one's neighbors, friends, and family, in one's backyard. ~ Abraham H. Maslow

The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name, liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names, liberty and tyranny. The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Everyone needed an obsession. ~ Abraham Verghese