Alexander Pope Quotes

The search of our future being is but a needless, anxious, and haste to be knowing, sooner than we can, what, without all this solicitude, we shall know a little later.

That each from other differs, first confess; next that he varies from himself no less.

A tree is a nobler object than a prince in his coronation-robes.

That, chang'd thro' all and yet in all the same, Great in the Earth as in th' Ætherial frame, Warms in the Sun, refreshes in the Breeze, Glows in the Stars, and blossoms in the Trees... Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part... Submit - in this, or any other Sphere, Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear. All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee; All Chance, Direction which thou canst not see; All Discord, Harmony not understood... All partial Evil, universal Good.

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

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

Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride, Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide: If to her share some female errors fall, Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

There are some solitary wretches who seem to have left the rest of mankind, only, as Eve left Adam, to meet the devil in private.

Fine sense and exalted sense are not half so useful as common sense.

[T]hro’ this Air, this Ocean, and this Earth, All Nature quick, and bursting into birth. Above, how high progressive life may go? Around how wide? how deep extend below? Vast Chain of Being! which from God began, Ethereal Essence, Spirit, Substance, Man, Beast, Bird, Fish, Insect! what no Eye can see, No Glass can reach! from Infinite to Thee! From Thee to Nothing.... From Nature’s Chain whatever Link you strike, Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.... All are but parts of one stupendous Whole: Whose Body Nature is, and God the Soul.

I believe it is no wrong Observation, that Persons of Genius, and those who are most capable of Art, are always fond of Nature, as such are chiefly sensible, that all Art consists in the Imitation and Study of Nature. On the contrary, People of the common Level of Understanding are principally delighted with the Little Niceties and Fantastical Operations of Art, and constantly think that finest which is least Natural.

Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but it impairs what it would improve.

Learning is like mercury, one of the most powerful and excellent things in the world in skillful hands; in unskillful, the most mischievous.

Health consists with temperance alone.

The most positive men are the most credulous.

Careless of censure, nor too fond of fame, Still pleased to praise, yet not afraid to blame, Averse alike to flatter or offend, Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.

Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, But are not critics to their judgment, too?

And die of nothing but a rage to live.

Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.

Those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

At every trifle take offense, that always shows great pride or little sense.

The life of a wit is a warfare upon earth.

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things.

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

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

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

There are certain times when most people are in a disposition of being informed, and 'tis incredible what a vast good a little truth might do, spoken in such seasons.

Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; But when loud surges lash the sounding shore, The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar. When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move slow: Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.

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

Ask you what provocation I have had? The strong antipathy of good to bad.

Pleas'd look forward, pleas'd to look behind,And count each birthday with a grateful mind.

How vast a memory has Love!

What Tully said of war may be applied to disputing: "It should be always so managed as to remember that the only true end of it is peace." But generally true disputants are like true sportsmen,--their whole delight is in the pursuit; and the disputant no more cares for the truth than the sportsman for the hare.

It is not so much the being exempt from faults, as having overcome them, that is an advantage to us.

Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old.

Wine lets no lover unrewarded go.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused; Still by himself abused or disabused; Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,- The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

We ought, in humanity, no more to despise a man for the misfortunes of the mind than for those of the body, when they are such as he cannot help; were this thoroughly considered we should no more laugh at a man for having his brains cracked than for having his head broke.

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

What's fame? a fancy'd life in other's breath. A thing beyond us, even before our death.

Truth needs not flowers of speech.

I am satisfied to trifle away my time, rather than let it stick by me.

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

Love finds an altar for forbidden fires.

The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy.

Where's the man who counsel can bestow, still pleased to teach, and yet not proud to know.

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

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, Thus unlamented let me die, Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie.