Abraham Cowley

A mighty pain to love it is,And 't is a pain that pain to miss;But of all pains, the greatest painIt is to love, but love in vain.

May I a small house and large garden have;And a few friends,And many books, both true.

Solitude can be used well by very few people. They who do must have a knowledge of the world to see the foolishness of it, and enough virtue to despise all the vanity.

But what is woman? Only one of nature's agreeable blunders.

Enjoy the present hour Be thankful for the past And neither fear nor wish Th' approaches of the last.

The present is an eternal now.

The present is all the ready money Fate can give.

Words that weep and tears that speak.

Hope! Of all the ills that men endure the only cheap and universal cure.

Hope! of all ills that men endure The only cheap and universal cure.

A mighty pain to love it is and 'tis a pain that pain to miss but of all pains the greatest pain it is to love but love in vain.

Gold begets in brethren hate Gold in families debate Gold does friendship separate Gold does civil wars create.

God the first garden made and the first city Cain.

Acquaintance I would have but when it depends not on the number but the choice of friends.

This only grant me that my means may lie too low for envy for contempt too high.

The world's a scene of changes and to be constant in nature is inconstancy.

What shall I do to be for ever known,And make the age to come my own?