Abraham Cowley Quotes

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.

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

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal Now does always last.

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

Life is an incurable disease.

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

The getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The world’s a scene of changes, and to be constant, in nature were inconstancy.

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.

A mighty pain to love it is,
And ’tis a pain that pain to miss;
But, of all pains, the greatest pain
Is to love, but love in vain.

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

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