Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past, And neither fear nor wish the approaches of the last.
- Abraham Cowley

For the whole world, without a native home, Is nothing but a prison of larger room.
- Abraham Cowley

Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil wars create.
- Abraham Cowley

Hence ye profane; I hate ye all; Both the great vulgar, and the small.
- Abraham Cowley

Hope! of all ills that men endure, The only cheap and universal cure.
- Abraham Cowley

Happy insect! what can be In happiness compared to thee? Fed with nourishment divine, The dewy morning’s gentle wine! Nature waits upon thee still, And thy verdant cup does fill; ‘Tis fill’d wherever thou dost tread, Nature’s self’s thy Ganymede.
- Abraham Cowley

Money was made, not to command our will, But all out lawful pleasure to fulfill. Shame and woe to use, if we our wealth obey; The horse doth with the horseman run away.
- Abraham Cowley

Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal Now does always last.
- Abraham Cowley

Of all ills that one endures, hope is a cheap and universal cure.
- Abraham Cowley

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
- Abraham Cowley

Poets by Death are conquer’d but the wit Of poets triumphs over it.
- Abraham Cowley

Stones of small worth may lie unseen by day, But night itself does the rich gem betray.
- Abraham Cowley

The thirsty Earth soaks up the Rain, And drinks, and gapes for Drink again; The Plants suck in the Earth and are With constant Drinking fresh and fair.
- Abraham Cowley

Vain, weak-built isthmus, which dost proudly rise Up between two eternities!
- Abraham Cowley

Words that weep, and tears that speak.
- Abraham Cowley

Who lets slip fortune, her shall never find: Occasion once past by, is bald behind.
- Abraham Cowley

What shall I do to be forever known, And make the age to come my own?
- Abraham Cowley