William Cowper Quotes
Page 1 of 2 William Cowper
1731-1800
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem 'Yardley-Oak'.
Cowper suffered from severe manic depression, and although he found refuge in a fervent evangelical Christianity, the inspiration behind his much-loved hymns, he often experienced doubt and feared that he was doomed to eternal damnation. His religious sentiment and association with John Newton (who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace") led to much of the poetry for which he is best remembered.
 Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will. Topics: Compassion, The Heart | | The tear that is wiped with a little address may be followed, perhaps, by a smile. Topics: Encouragement | | Events of all sorts creep or fly exactly as God pleases. Topics: God | | Nature is but a name for an effect, whose cause is God. Topics: God, Nature | | Happy the man who sees a God employed in all the good and ills that checker life. Topics: Happiness | | The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight. Topics: Holy Spirit, Truth | |
| | There is no grace that the spirit of self can counterfeit with more success than a religious zeal. Topics: Hypocrisy, Zeal | | Knowledge is proud that she knows so much; wisdom is humble that she knows no more. Topics: Knowledge | | Their blood is shed in confirmation of the noblest claim - the claim to feed upon immortal truth, to walk with God, and be divinely free. Topics: Obedience, Freedom | | Great offices will have great talents, and God gives to every man the virtue, temper, understanding, taste, that lifts him into life, and lets him fall just in the niche he was ordained to fill. Topics: Obedience, Contentment | | How happy it is to believe, with a steadfast assurance, that our petitions are heard even while we are making them; and how delightful to meet with a proof of it in the effectual and actual grant of them. Topics: Prayer, Assurance | | Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees. Topics: Prayer |
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