William Cowper Mind Quotations

Knowledge dwells in heads replete with thoughts of other men; wisdom in minds attentive to their own.

Charge / His mind with meanings that he never had.

To dally much with subject mean and lowProves that the mind is weak, or makes it so.

The earth was made so various, that the mind Of desultory man, studious of change, And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.

Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.

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.

England with all thy faults, I love thee still-- My country! and, while yet a nook is left Where English minds and manners may be found, Shall be constrained to love thee.

How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.

Learning itself, received into a mind By nature weak, or viciously inclined, Serves but to lead philosophers astray, Where children would with ease discern the way.

Some men make gain a fountain, whence proceeds A stream of liberal and heroic deeds; The swell of pity, not to be confined Within the scanty limits of the mind.

Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have oft-times no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.

Absence of occupation is not rest; A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.