William Cowper Time Quotations

Philologists who chase / A panting syllable through time and space, / Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark, / To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.

A patriot's blood,Well spent in such a strife, may earn indeed,And for a time ensure to his loved land,The sweets of liberty and equal laws;But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize,And win it with more pain. Their blood is shedIn confirmation of the noblest claim --Our claim to feed upon immortal truth,To walk with God, to be divinely free,To soar, and to anticipate the skies.Yet few remember them.

A patriot's blood, Well spent in such a strife, may earn indeed, And for a time ensure to his loved land, The sweets of liberty and equal laws; But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize, And win it with more pain. Their blood is shed In confirmation of the noblest claim -- Our claim to feed upon immortal truth, To walk with God, to be divinely free, To soar, and to anticipate the skies. Yet few remember them.

The pipe, with solemn interposing puff,Makes half a sentence at a time enough;The dozing sages drop the drowsy strain,Then pause, and puff -- and speak, and pause again.

Misses the tale that I relate - This lesson seems to carry - Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry

Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing.

Time, as he passes us, has a dove's wing, Unsoil'd, and swift, and of a silken sound.