Alexander Pope Quotes

Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing. ~ Alexander Pope

When we are young, we are slavishly employed in procuring something whereby we may live comfortably when we grow old; and when we are old, we perceive it is too late to live as we proposed. ~ Alexander Pope

'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do. ~ Alexander Pope

And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd shade,
Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made. ~ Alexander Pope

Horses (thou say'st) and asses men may try,
And ring suspected vessels ere they buy;
But wives, a random choice, untried they take;
They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake;
Then, nor till then, the veil's removed away,
And all the woman glares in open day. ~ Alexander Pope

Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise. ~ Alexander Pope

Who are next to knaves? Those that converse with them. ~ Alexander Pope

You eat, in dreams, the custard of the day. ~ Alexander Pope

A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind. ~ Alexander Pope

Poetic justice, with her lifted scale,
Where, in nice balance, truth with gold she weighs,
And solid pudding against empty praise.
Here she beholds the chaos dark and deep,
Where nameless somethings in their causes sleep,
Till genial Jacob, or a warm third day,
Call forth each mass, a poem, or a play:
How hints, like spawn, scarce quick in embryo lie,
How new-born nonsense first is taught to cry. ~ Alexander Pope

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit. ~ Alexander Pope

Mankind is unamendable. ~ Alexander Pope

A field of glory is a field for all. ~ Alexander Pope

No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n, Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heav'n; But such plain roofs as Piety could raise, And only vocal with the Maker's praise. ~ Alexander Pope

Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet to run amok and tilt at all I meet. ~ Alexander Pope

Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire. ~ Alexander Pope

Men would be angels, angels would be gods. ~ Alexander Pope

Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet,
And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. ~ Alexander Pope

Leave not a foot of verse, a foot of stone, A Page, a Grave, that they can call their own; But spread, my sons, your glory thin or thick, On passive paper, or on solid brick. ~ Alexander Pope

The young disease, that must subdue at length, Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength. ~ Alexander Pope

At present we can only reason of the divine justice from what we know of justice in man. When we are in other scenes, we may have truer and nobler ideas of it; but while we are in this life, we can only speak from the volume that is laid open before us. ~ Alexander Pope

Here thou, great Anna! Whom three realms obey, / Dost sometimes counsel take - and sometimes tea. ~ Alexander Pope

New, distant Scenes of endless Science rise: So pleas'd at first, the towring Alps we try, ... ~ Alexander Pope

As some to church repair, not for the doctrine, but the music there. ~ Alexander Pope

Physicians are in general the most amiable companions and the best friends, as well as the most learned men I know. ~ Alexander Pope

See Christians, Jews, one heavy sabbath keep, And all the western world believe and sleep. ~ Alexander Pope

I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian. ~ Alexander Pope

We cannot stem linguistic change, but we can drag our feet. If each of us were to defy Alexander Pope and be the last to lay the old aside, it might not be a better world, but it would be a lovelier language. ~ Willard Van Orman Quine

Love finds an altar for forbidden fires. ~ Alexander Pope

Luxurious lobster-nights, farewell, For sober, studious days! ~ Alexander Pope

All nature mourns, the skies relent in showers; hushed are the birds, and closed the drooping flowers. ~ Alexander Pope

Reason, however able, cool at best, Cares not for service, or but serves when prest, Stays till we call, and then not often near. ~ Alexander Pope

But see, Orion sheds unwholesome dews; Arise, the pines a noxious shade diffuse; Sharp Boreas blows, and nature feels decay, Time conquers all, and we must time obey. ~ Alexander Pope

Oh let me live my own! and die so too!
("To live and die is all I have to do:")
Maintain a poet's dignity and ease,
And see what friends, and read what books I please. ~ Alexander Pope

And not a vanity is given in vain. ~ Alexander Pope

What vexes me most is, that my female friends, who could bear me very well a dozen years ago, have now forsaken me, although I am not so old in proportion to them as I formerly was: which I can prove by arithmetic, for then I was double their age, which now I am not. Letter to Alexander Pope. 7 Feb. 1736. ~ Jonathan Swift

What is it to be wise?
'Tis but to know how little can be known,
To see all others' faults, and feel our own. ~ Alexander Pope

Envy will merit, as its shade, pursue ~ Alexander Pope

Intrepid then, o'er seas and lands he flew:
Europe he saw, and Europe saw him too. ~ Alexander Pope

The season when to come, and when to go, to sing, or cease to sing, we never know. ~ Alexander Pope

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.
But Health consists with Temperance alone,
And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own. ~ Alexander Pope

Some are bewildered in the maze of schools, And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools. ~ Alexander Pope

The man that loves and laughs must sure do well. ~ Alexander Pope

See plastic Nature working to this end, The single atoms each to other tend, Attract, attracted to, the next in place Form'd and impell'd its neighbor to embrace. ~ Alexander Pope

Where grows?
where grows it not? If vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the soil. ~ Alexander Pope

As with narrow-necked bottles; the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring out. ~ Alexander Pope

All chance, direction, which thou canst not see ~ Alexander Pope

Great oaks grow from little acorns. He has a green thumb. He has green fingers. He's sowing his wild oats. Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand, And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand. ~ Alexander Pope

How Instinct varies in the grov'ling swine. ~ Alexander Pope

No more was seen the human form divine. ~ Alexander Pope

Nor Fame I slight, nor for her favors call; She comes unlooked for, if she comes at all . ~ Alexander Pope

Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;
And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain ~ Alexander Pope

Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, and fills up all the mighty void of sense. ~ Alexander Pope

He knows to live who keeps the middle state, and neither leans on this side nor on that. ~ Alexander Pope

I as little fear that God will damn a person who has charity as I hope that the priests can save one who has not. ~ Alexander Pope

To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves. ~ Alexander Pope

Where London's column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies. ~ Alexander Pope

And more than echoes talk along the walls. ~ Alexander Pope

True disputants are like true sportsmen: their whole delight is in the pursuit. ~ Alexander Pope

Is it, in heav'n, a crime to love too well? ~ Alexander Pope

The flower's are gone when the Fruits appear to ripen. ~ Alexander Pope

Oh, when shall Britain, conscious of her claim, Stand emulous of Greek and Roman fame? In living medals see her wars enroll'd, And vanquished realms supply recording gold? ~ Alexander Pope

The vanity of human life is like a river, constantly passing away, and yet constantly coming on. ~ Alexander Pope

The blest to-day is as completely so, As who began a thousand years ago. ~ Alexander Pope

Consult the genius of the place, that paints as you plant, and as you work. ~ Alexander Pope

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate. ~ Alexander Pope

Like following life through creatures you dissect,
You lose it in the moment you detect. ~ Alexander Pope

O let us still the secret joy partake,
To follow virtue even for virtue's sake. ~ Alexander Pope

Every man has just as much vanity as he wants understanding. ~ Alexander Pope

All looks yellow to the jaundiced eye. [and therefore the solution is to fix the jaundiced eye.] ~ Alexander Pope

Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd, Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd. ~ Alexander Pope

The scripture in times of disputes is like an open town in times of war, which serves in differently the occasions of both parties. ~ Alexander Pope

Who shall decide when doctors disagree, And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me? ~ Alexander Pope

Old men, for the most part, are like old chronicles that give you dull but true accounts of times past, and are worth knowing only on that score. ~ Alexander Pope

But see how oft ambition's aims are cross'd, and chiefs contend 'til all the prize is lost! ~ Alexander Pope

Some who grow dull religious straight commence
And gain in morals what they lose in sense. ~ Alexander Pope

Of little use, the man you may suppose,
Who says in verse what others say in prose;
Yet let me show a poet's of some weight,
And (though no soldier) useful to the state,
What will a child learn sooner than a song?
What better teach a foreigner the tongue?
What's long or short, each accent where to place
And speak in public with some sort of grace? ~ Alexander Pope

Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven, And though no science, fairly worth the seven. ~ Alexander Pope

An atheist is but a mad, ridiculous derider of piety, but a hypocrite makes a sober jest of God and religion; he finds it easier to be upon his knees than to rise to a good action. ~ Alexander Pope

A pear-tree planted nigh:
'Twas charg'd with fruit that made a goodly show,
And hung with dangling pears was every bough. ~ Alexander Pope

A good-natured man has the whole world to be happy out of. ~ Alexander Pope

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? Pleas'd to the last he crops the flow'ry food, And licks the hand just rais'd to shed his blood. ~ Alexander Pope

Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise; My footstool earth, my canopy the skies. ~ Alexander Pope

Say first, of god above or man below; what can we reason but from what we know. ~ Alexander Pope

What so pure, which envious tongues will spare?
Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair,
With matchless impudence they style a wife,
The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life;
A bosom serpent, a domestic evil,
A night invasion, and a mid-day devil;
Let not the wise these sland'rous words regard,
But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard. ~ Alexander Pope

The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head, forever, and forever! Then flashed the living lightning from her eyes, And screams of horror rend th' affrighted skies. ~ Alexander Pope

Art still followed where Rome's eagles flew. ~ Alexander Pope

Then sculpture and her sister arts revived; stones leaped to form, and rocks began to live. ~ Alexander Pope

Superstition is the spleen of the soul. ~ Alexander Pope

To be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Go wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence. ~ Alexander Pope

Our judgments, like our watches, none
go just alike, yet each believes his own ~ Alexander Pope

But see, the shepherds shun the noonday heat,
The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat,
To closer shades the panting flocks remove;
Ye gods! And is there no relief for love? ~ Alexander Pope

Be silent always when you doubt your sense. ~ Alexander Pope

For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. ~ Alexander Pope

The world is a thing we must of necessity either laugh at or be angry at; if we laugh at it, they say we are proud; if we are angry at it, they say we are ill-natured. ~ Alexander Pope

Where'er you walk cool gales shall fan the glade, Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade. Where'er you tread the blushing flowers shall rise, And all things flourish where you turn your eyes. ~ Alexander Pope

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light. ~ Alexander Pope

Then most our trouble still when most admired,
And still the more we give, the more required;
Whose fame with pains we guard, but lose with ease,
Sure some to vex, but never all to please. ~ Alexander Pope

Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state, Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate. ~ Alexander Pope

I have more zeal than wit. ~ Alexander Pope