No one was ever scolded out of their sins.
~ William Cowper - [Sin]

Forced from home, and all its pleasures, afric coast I left forlorn; to increase a stranger's treasures, o the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, paid my price in paltry gold; but, though theirs they have enroll'd me, minds are never to be sold.
~ William Cowper - [Slavery]

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum, for how could we do without sugar and rum?
~ William Cowper - [Slavery]

Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.
~ William Cowper - [Solitude]

The path of sorrow and that path alone, leads to a land where sorrow is unknown.
~ William Cowper - [Sorrow]

Once more I would adopt the graver style -- a teacher should be sparing of his smile.
~ William Cowper - [Teachers and Teaching]

A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion; a temper passionate and fierce may suddenly your joys disperse at one immense explosion.
~ William Cowper - [Temper]

Candid and generous and just. Boys care but little whom they trust. An error soon corrected -- for who but learns in riper years. That man, when smoothest he appears, is most to be suspected?
~ William Cowper - [Trust]

Ceremony leads her bigots forth, prepared to fight for shadows of no worth. While truths, on which eternal things depend, can hardly find a single friend.
~ William Cowper - [Truth]

Variety's the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.
~ William Cowper - [Variety]

A self-made man? Yes, and one who worships his creator.
~ William Cowper - [Pride]

It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.
~ William Cowper - [Profanity]

Existence is a strange bargain. Life owes us little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.
~ William Cowper - [Purpose]

Thus happiness depends, as nature shows, less on exterior things than most suppose.
~ William Cowper - [Purpose]

Remorse, the fatal egg that pleasure laid.
~ William Cowper - [Regret]

Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word!
~ William Cowper - [Religion]

Remorse begets reform.
~ William Cowper - [Remorse]

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.
~ William Cowper - [Rest]

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; Wisdom is humble that it knows no more.
~ William Cowper - [Knowledge]

Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass, the mere materials with which wisdom builds, till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place, does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
~ William Cowper - [Knowledge]