Alexander Pope Quotes & Sayings

It often happens that those are the best people whose characters have been most injured by slanderers: as we usually find that to be the sweetest fruit which the birds have been picking at. — Alexander Pope

When to mischief mortals bend their will, how soon they find it instruments of ill. — Alexander Pope

So vast is art, so narrow human wit. — Alexander Pope

Then, at the last and only couplet fraught With some unmeaning thing they call a thought, A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. — Alexander Pope

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

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

Giving advice is many times only the privilege of saying a foolish thing one's self, under the pretense of hindering another from doing one. — Alexander Pope

Who ne'er knew joy but friendship might divide,Or gave his father grief but when he died. — 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

The most positive men are the most credulous. — Alexander Pope

Index-learning turns no student pale,
Yet holds the eel of Science by the tail.
Index-learning is a term used to mock pretenders who acquire superficial knowledge merely by consulting indexes. — Alexander Pope

There is a majesty in simplicity. — Alexander Pope

There is but one way I know of conversing safely with all men; that is, not by concealing what we say or do, but by saying or doing nothing that deserves to be concealed. — Alexander Pope

Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day,
Charm'd the small-pox, or chased old age away;
Who would not scorn what housewife's cares produce,
Or who would learn one earthly thing of use? — Alexander Pope

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

No louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast, When husbands or lap-dogs breathe their last. — Alexander Pope

Ye gods, annihilate but space and time,
And make two lovers happy. — Alexander Pope

Let Joy or Ease, let Affluence or Content, And the gay Conscience of a life well spent, Calm ev'ry thought, inspirit ev'ry grace, Glow in thy heart, and smile upon thy face. — Alexander Pope

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. — Alexander Pope

The Right Divine of Kings to govern wrong. — Alexander Pope

Of all affliction taught a lover yet,
'Tis true the hardest science to forget. — Alexander Pope

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. — Alexander Pope

Fame can never make us lie down contentedly on a deathbed. — Alexander Pope

There is nothing meritorious but virtue and friendship. — Alexander Pope

A patriot is a fool in ev'ry age. — Alexander Pope

Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;
The arts of building from the bee receive;
Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave. — Alexander Pope

For he lives twice who can at once employ,
The present well, and e'en the past enjoy. — Alexander Pope

chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd. — Alexander Pope

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

The villain's censure is extorted praise. — Alexander Pope

A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. — Alexander Pope

Presumptuous Man! the reason wouldst thou find,
Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind?
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,
Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less!
Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade?
Or ask of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove? — Alexander Pope

Genuine religion is not so much a matter of feeling as a matter of principle. — Alexander Pope

Hang o'er the Box, and hover round the Ring. Think what an equipage thou hast in Air, 45 And view with scorn two Pages and a Chair. — Alexander Pope

A man of business may talk of philosophy; a man who has none may practice it. — Alexander Pope

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

Invention furnishes Art with all her materials, and without it, Judgement itself can at best but steal wisely. — Alexander Pope

So man, who here seems principal alone, Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal; 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. — Alexander Pope

Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise. By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies? Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. — Alexander Pope

No, make me mistress to the man I love; If there be yet another name more free More fond than mistress, make me that to thee! — Alexander Pope

To dazzle let the vain design, To raise the thought and touch the heart, be thine! — Alexander Pope

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

To swear is neither brave, polite, nor wise. — Alexander Pope

So modern 'pothecaries, taught the art By doctor's bills to play the doctor's part, Bold in the practice of mistaken rules, Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools. — Alexander Pope

Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land? All fear, none aid you, and few understand. — Alexander Pope

The people's voice is odd, It is, and it is not, the voice of God. — 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

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

Lo! the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way. — Alexander Pope

For who can move when fair Belinda fails? Not half so fix'd the Trojan could remain, 5 While Anna begg'd and Dido rag'd in vain. Then grave Clarissa graceful wav'd her fan; Silence ensu'd, and thus the nymph began. — Alexander Pope

But touch me, and no minister so sore.
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme,
Sacred to ridicule his whole life long,
And the sad burthen of some merry song. — Alexander Pope

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

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

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

To be angry, is to revenge the fault of others upon ourselves. — Alexander Pope

Count all th' advantage prosperous Vice attains,
'Tis but what Virtue flies from and disdains:
And grant the bad what happiness they would,
One they must want
which is, to pass for good. — Alexander Pope

Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, Is emulation in the learn'd or brave. — Alexander Pope

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

To pardon those absurdities in ourselves which we cannot suffer in others is neither better nor worse than to be more willing to be fools ourselves than to have others so. — Alexander Pope

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

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

Consult the genius of the place in all;
That tells the waters or to rise, or fall;
Or helps th' ambitious hill the heav'ns to scale,
Or scoops in circling theatres the vale;
Calls in the country, catches opening glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades,
Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending lines;
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs. — Alexander Pope

Cursed be the verse, how well so e'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe. — Alexander Pope

Fickle Fortune reigns, and, undiscerning, scatters crowns and chains. — Alexander Pope

Nothing is more certain than much of the force; as well as grace, of arguments or instructions depends their conciseness. — Alexander Pope

Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy Opinion against Providence;
Call Imperfection what thou fancy'st such,
Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,(9)
Yet cry, If Man's unhappy, God's unjust;
If Man alone ingross not Heav'n's high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there:
Snatch from his hand the balance(10) and the rod,
Re-judge his justice, be the GOD of GOD! — Alexander Pope

A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn. — Alexander Pope

Content if hence th' unlearn'd their wants may view, The learn'd reflect on what before they knew. — Alexander Pope

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

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

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

O Love! for Sylvia let me gain the prize,
And make my tongue victorious as her eyes. — Alexander Pope

Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food, And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood. — Alexander Pope

Some to conceit alone their taste confine,
And glittering thoughts struck out at ev'ry line;
Pleas'd with a work where nothing's just or fit;
One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit. — Alexander Pope

The pride of aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, is the cause of Man's error and misery. — Alexander Pope

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. — Alexander Pope

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

Who sees pale Mammom pine amidst his store, Sees but a backward steward for the poor. — Alexander Pope

Whether the charmer sinner it, or saint it, If folly grow romantic, I must paint it. — Alexander Pope

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

How loved, how honored once, avails thee not, To whom related, or by whom begot A heap of dust alone remains of thee 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be! — Alexander Pope

That, chang'd thro' all and yet in all the same, Great in the Earth as in th' Aetherial 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 ... — Alexander Pope

Nor Fame I slight, nor her favors call — Alexander Pope

No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole;
Rise Alps between us! and whole oceans roll!
Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me,
Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee.
Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign;
Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine.
Fair eyes, and tempting looks (which yet I view!)
Long lov'd, ador'd ideas, all adieu! — Alexander Pope

Favours to none, to all she smiles extends; Oft she rejects, but never once offends. — Alexander Pope

He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one. — Alexander Pope

We may see the small Value God has for Riches, by the People he gives them to.
[Thoughts on Various Subjects, 1727] — Alexander Pope

How happy he, who free from care
The rage of courts, and noise of towns; Contented breathes his native air,
In his own grounds — Alexander Pope

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is virtue's prize. — 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

Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style, Amaze th' unlearn'd and make the learned smile. — Alexander Pope

Simplicity is the mean between ostentation and rusticity. — Alexander Pope

The Muse but serv'd to ease some friend, not wife, / To help me through this long disease, my life. — Alexander Pope

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

While pensive poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves, to give their readers sleep. — Alexander Pope

Nature made every fop to plague his brother, Just as one beauty mortifies another. — Alexander Pope

Blest paper-credit! last and best supply! That lends corruption lighter wings to fly! — Alexander Pope

To what base ends, and by what abject ways, Are mortals urg'd through sacred lust of praise! — Alexander Pope