“Absence of occupation is not rest, / A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.”

— William Cowper, Retirement, l. 623, 1782

About William Cowper

1731 – 1800

English poet and hymnwriter, author of "The Task".

“Still ending, and beginning still.”

“The path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the lands where sorrow is unknown.”

“Domestic happiness, thou only bliss of Paradise that has surviv'd the fall!”

“Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.”

“Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement.”

“For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene.”

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

“Remember that all is opinion.”