Abraham Cowley

Fond archer, Hope! who tak'st thy aim so far,That still or short, or wide thine arrows are!

— Abraham Cowley

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

— 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

Life is an incurable disease.

— Abraham Cowley

I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life only to the culture of them and the study of nature.And there (with no design beyond my wall) whole and entire to lie, In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty.

— Abraham Cowley

Oh happy, (if his happiness he knows)Whom the just Earth with easie plenty feeds.

— Abraham Cowley

Awake, awake, my Lyre!Tell her, such different notes make all thy harmony.

— Abraham Cowley

Beauty, thou wild fantastic apeWho dost in every country change thy shape!

— Abraham Cowley

To virgin minds, which yet their native whiteness hold,Which makes it look so gilded and so foul)

— Abraham Cowley

If of their pleasures and desires no end be found;Ye strive for more, as if ye liked it not.

— Abraham Cowley

I sing the Man who Judahs Scepter boreThe two chief gifts Heav'n could on Man bestow.

— Abraham Cowley

Ev'en Thou my breast with such blest rage inspire,As mov'd the tuneful strings of Davids Lyre

— Abraham Cowley

Lo, this great work, a Temple to thy praise,Th' Apostle, to convert that World to Thee;

— Abraham Cowley

Here Lucifer the mighty Captive reigns;Proud, 'midst his Woes, and Tyrant in his Chains.

— Abraham Cowley

Unable to corrupt, seek to destroy;And where their Poysons miss, the Sword employ.

— Abraham Cowley

He saw the beauties of his shape and face,His female sweetness, and his manly grace

— Abraham Cowley

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

— Abraham Cowley

When Israel was from bondage led,The great sea beheld and fled.

— Abraham Cowley

An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair,And fell adown his shoulders with loose care.

— Abraham Cowley

Thus each extream to equal danger tends,Plenty as well as Want can separate Friends;

— Abraham Cowley

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

— 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