Alexander Pope Quotes

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

There is no study that is not capable of delighting us after a little application to it.

Jarring interests of themselves create the according music of a well-mixed state.

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

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.

Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men not afraid of God, afraid of me.

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

In faith and hope the world will disagree, but all mankind's concern is charity.

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

Man, like the generous vine, supported lives; the strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.

Atheists put on false courage and alacrity in the midst of their darkness and apprehensions, like children who, when they fear to go in the dark, will sing for fear.

The bookful blockhead ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head, With his own tongue still edifies his ears, And always list'ning to himself appears. All books he reads, and all he reads assails.

Get your enemy to read your works in order to mend them, for your friend is so much your second self that he will judge too like you.

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His faithful dog shall bear him company.

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

When much dispute has past, we find our tenets just the same as last.

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.

If I am right, Thy grace impart Still in the right to stay; If I am wrong, O, teach my heart To find that better way!

In death a hero, as in life a friend!

A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink of it deeply, or taste it not, for shallow thoughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking deeply sobers us again.

Who dare to love their country, and be poor.

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

A family is but too often a commonwealth of malignants.

We may see the small value God has for riches, by the people he gives them to.

In lazy apathy let stoics boast, their virtue fixed, 'tis fixed as in a frost.

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.

Therefore they who say our thoughts are not our own because they resemble the Ancients, may as well say our faces are not our own, because they are like our Fathers: And indeed it is very unreasonable, that people should expect us to be Scholars, and yet be angry to find us so.

When I die, I should be ashamed to leave enough to build me a monument if there were a wanting friend above ground. I would enjoy the pleasure of what I give by giving it alive and seeing another enjoy it.

Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.

Sickness is a sort of early old age; it teaches us a diffidence in our earthly state.

What will a child learn sooner than a song?

Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.

Fools admire, but men of sense approve.

To wake the soul by tender strokes of art, To raise the genius, and to mend the heart

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

To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite, who never mentions hell to ears polite.

Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense weigh thy opinion against Providence.

Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare; And beauty draws us with a single hair.

And seem to walk on wings, and tread in air.

As some to church repair, Not for the doctrine, but the music there. These equal syllables alone require, Though oft the ear the open vowels tire While expletives their feeble aid do join, And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.

O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name.

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words,-health, peace, and competence.

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

A naked lover bound and bleeding lies!

Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; Bliss is the same in subject or in king.

Age and want sit smiling at the gate.

Talk what you will of taste, my friend, you'll find two of a face as soon as of a mind.

To endeavor to work upon the vulgar with fine sense is like attempting to hew blocks with a razor.