William Cowper Quotes
Ten thousand casks, Forever dribbling out their base contents, Touch'd by the Midas finger of the state, Bleed gold for ministers to sport away. Drink, and be mad then; 'tis your country bids!
Cowper, William. The Works of William Cowper. Edited by Robert Southey, vol. 9, Baldwin and Cradock, 1836, p. 155.
He was a conservative, Republican Congressman from Georgia when he made this statement complaining about the wast of mmoney by Federal Officials and bureaucrats. The thing that made this common complaint memorable is that several years later, he was appointed by President Donald Trump as Secretary of Health and Human Services. In less than a year in the office, he was forced to resign [fired] in disgrace for wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars chartering private airplanes for himself and his staff including one where he spent $25,000 to charter a plane from Washington DC to Philadelphia -- a two hour drive in his government car, less than $100 for the Amtrak train or $10 by the Greayhound bus. The scandal that erupted was made worse by the hypocricy.
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem Yardley-Oak.
