Abraham Cowley (1618–1667): British writer. The library holds 43 quotes by Abraham Cowley, drawn from Davideis, The Garden, From Anacreon, ii. Drinking and other works. The 43 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
The thirsty earth soaks up the rain,
And drinks, and gapes for drink again;
The plants suck in the earth, and are
With constant drinking fresh and fair.
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, a rapacious vulture.
Solitude can be well applied and sit right upon but very few persons. They must have knowledge of the world to see the follies of it, and virtue enough to despise all the vanity.
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.
If we engage into a large acquaintance and various familiarities, we set open our gates to the invaders of most of our time; we expose our life to a quotidian ague of frigid impertinences which would make a wise man tremble to think of.
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.
We spent them not in toys, in lusts, or wine,
But search of deep philosophy,
Wit, eloquence, and poetry;
Arts which I lov’d, for they, my friend, were thine.
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.
Hope! of all ills that men endure,
The only cheap and universal cure!
Hope! thou first-fruits of happiness!
Thou gentle dawning of a bright success!
Brother of Faith! ’twixt whom and thee
The joys of Heaven and Earth divided be!
The best kind of glory is that which is reflected from honesty,—such as was the glory of Cato and Aristides; but it was harmful to them both, and is seldom beneficial to any man whilst he lives; what it is to him after his death I cannot say, because I love not philosophy merely notional and conjectural, and no man who has made the experiment has been so kind as to come back to inform us.