John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
4472 William Cowper 1731-1800 John Bartlett
| NUMBER: | 4472 |
| AUTHOR: | William Cowper (1731–1800) |
| QUOTATION: | Our wasted oil unprofitably burns, Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns. 1 |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Conversation. Line 357. |
| Note 1. See Butler, Quotation 45. The story of a lamp which was supposed to have burned about fifteen hundred years in the sepulchre of Tullia, the daughter of Cicero, is told by Pancirollus and others. [back] |