Alexander Pope Quotes

Alexander Pope(Poet)

 

ⓒ Wikimedia Commons

 

 

 

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

 

 

 

Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be blest.

 

 

 

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

 

 

 

Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.

 

 

 

Teach me to feel another's woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.

 

 

 

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

 

 

 

For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.

 

 

 

A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

 

 

 

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

 

 

 

Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed was the ninth beatitude.

 

 

 

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

 

 

 

Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.

 

 

 

Nature and nature's laws lay hid in the night. God said, Let Newton be! and all was light!

 

 

 

On wrongs swift vengeance waits.

 

 

 

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

 

 

 

The most positive men are the most credulous.

 

 

 

Praise undeserved, is satire in disguise.

 

 

 

On life's vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.

 

 

 

'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.

 

 

 

Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.

 

 

 

Men must be taught as if you taught them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot.

 

 

 

A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead.

 

 

 

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

 

 

 

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head.

 

 

 

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.

 

 

 

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much better than tedious disease.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Lo! The poor Indian, whose untutored mind sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.

 

 

 

And die of nothing but a rage to live.

 

 

 

So vast is art, so narrow human wit.

 

 

 

Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.

 

 

 

Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

 

 

 

They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.

 

 

 

And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in a masquerade.

 

 

 

All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is, and God the soul.

 

 

 

Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child.

 

 

 

Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.

 

 

 

The learned is happy, nature to explore; The fool is happy, that he knows no more.

 

 

 

Genius creates, and taste preserves. Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly.

 

 

 

Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.

 

 

 

The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, and wretches hang that jurymen may dine.

 

 

 

Health consists with temperance alone.

 

 

 

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.

 

 

 

Party-spirit at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

 

 

 

How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?

 

 

 

No woman ever hates a man for being in love with her, but many a woman hate a man for being a friend to her.

 

 

 

Gentle dullness ever loves a joke.

 

 

 

Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.

 

 

 

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

 

 

 

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

 

 

 

But Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich, not making poor.

 

 

 

All nature is but art unknown to thee.

 

 

 

Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.

 

 

 

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

An honest man's the noblest work of God.

 

 

 

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.

 

 

 

Woman's at best a contradiction still.

 

 

 

Histories are more full of examples of the fidelity of dogs than of friends.

 

 

 

Wit is the lowest form of humor.

 

 

 

Those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

 

 

 

A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.

 

 

 

And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.

 

 

 

The ruling passion, be it what it will. The ruling passion conquers reason still.

 

 

 

Never find fault with the absent.

 

 

 

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

 

 

 

Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature's God.

 

 

 

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.

 

 

 

Order is heaven's first law.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

At ev'ry word a reputation dies.

 

 

 

Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

 

 

 

There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.

 

 

 

The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.

 

 

 

Remembrance and reflection how allied. What thin partitions divides sense from thought.

 

 

 

Satan is wiser now than before, and tempts by making rich instead of poor.

 

 

 

Not always actions show the man; we find who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

 

 

 

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

 

 

 

Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around!

 

 

 

A cherub's face, a reptile all the rest.

 

 

 

The proper study of Mankind is Man.

 

 

 

Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

 

 

 

To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th' observer's sake.

 

 

 

Extremes in nature equal ends produce; In man they join to some mysterious use.

 

 

 

A God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature.

 

 

 

Fondly we think we honor merit then, When we but praise ourselves in other men.

 

 

 

Never elated when someone's oppressed, never dejected when another one's blessed.

 

 

 

A person who is too nice an observer of the business of the crowd, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.

 

 

 

The same ambition can destroy or save, and make a patriot as it makes a knave.

 

 

 

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

 

 

 

I find myself hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

 

 

 

Men would be angels, angels would be gods.

 

 

 

Never was it given to mortal man - To lie so boldly as we women can.

 

 

 

How prone to doubt, how cautious are the wise!

 

 

 

True politeness consists in being easy one's self, and in making every one about one as easy as one can.

 

 

 

But blind to former as to future fate, what mortal knows his pre-existent state?

 

 

 

If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Passions are the gales of life.

 

 

 

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

 

 

 

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, content to dwell in decencies for ever.

 

 

 

Like Cato, give his little senate laws, and sit attentive to his own applause.

 

 

 

The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres.

 

 

 

Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.

 

 

 

Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain; awake but one, and in, what myriads rise!

 

 

 

The difference is too nice - Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

 

 

 

Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.