Alexander Pope Quotes

On life's vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale; Nor God alone in the still calm we find, He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind.

For critics, as they are birds of prey, have ever a natural inclination to carrion.

One self-approving hour whole years outweighs.

Whenever I find a great deal of gratitude in a poor man, I take it for granted there would be as much generosity if he were a rich man.

This long disease, my life.

Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend.

A brave man struggling in the storms of fate, And greatly falling with a falling state.

True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd; Something whose truth convinced at sight we find, That gives us back the image of our mind. As shades more sweetly recommend the light, So modest plainness sets off sprightly wit.

For thee I dim these eye and stuff this head With all such reading as was never read.

Whoe'er he be That tells my faults, I hate him mortally.

Music resembles poetry, in each Are nameless graces which no methods teach, And which a master hand alone can reach.

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

A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.

There goes a saying, and 'twas shrewdly said, ''Old fish at table, but young flesh in bed.

Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this stage? In every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part.

Behold the groves that shine with silver frost, their beauty withered, and their verdure lost!

In lazy apathy let stoics boast, their virtue fix'd: 't is fix'd as in a frost; contracted all, retiring to the breast; but strength of mind is exercise, not rest.

The dances ended, all the fairy train For pinks and daisies search'd the flow'ry plain.

An honest man's the noblest work of God.

In men, we various ruling passions find; In women, two almost divide the kind Those, only fixed, they first or last obey, The love of pleasure, and the love of sway.

Truth shines the brighter, clad in verse.

You eat, in dreams, the custard of the day.

What is fame? a fancied life in others' breath.

Men, some to business, some to pleasure take; But every woman is at heart a rake.

Absent or dead, still let a friend be dear.

The nicest constitutions of government are often like the finest pieces of clock-work, which, depending on so many motions, are therefore more subject to be out of order.

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

Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet To run amuck, and tilt at all I meet.

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

The race by vigour, not by vaunts, is won.

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

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.

Most women have no characters at all.

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

A perfect woman's but a softer man.

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

Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes: the glorious fault of angels and of gods.

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

The greatest advantage I know of being thought a wit by the world is, that it gives one the greater freedom of playing the fool.

While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" "See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose.

A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury, for he has it then in his power to make himself superior to the other by forgiving it.

When two people compliment each other with the choice of anything, each of them generally gets that which he likes least.

Gentle dullness ever loves a joke.

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

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

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

For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crowned.The berries crackle, and the mill turns round ... At once they gratify their scent and taste.And frequent cups prolong the rich repast... Coffee (which makes the politician wise And see through all things with his half-shut eyes).