Alexander Pope's Quotes & Sayings

Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.
But Health consists with Temperance alone,
And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own. — Alexander Pope

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

Silence! coeval with eternity! thou wert ere Nature's self began to be; thine was the sway ere heaven was formed on earth, ere fruitful thought conceived creation's birth. — Alexander Pope

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

Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgement, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is PRIDE, the never-failing vice of fools. — Alexander Pope

And each blasphemer quite escape the rod, Because the insult's not on man, but God? — Alexander Pope

If it be the chief point of friendship to comply with a friend's notions and inclinations he possesses this is an eminent degree; he lies down when I sit, and walks when I walk, which is more that many good friends can pretend to do. — Alexander Pope

I lose my patience, and I own it too,
When works are censur'd, not as bad but new;
While if our Elders break all reason's laws,
These fools demand not pardon but Applause. — Alexander Pope

From the moment one sets up for an author, one must be treated as ceremoniously, that is as unfaithfully, as a king's favorite or a king. — 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

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd — Alexander Pope

Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom Lost in a convent's solitary gloom! — Alexander Pope

Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, And catch the manners living as they rise; Laugh where we must, be candid where we can, But vindicate the ways of God to man. — Alexander Pope

From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. — Alexander Pope

Art still followed where Rome's eagles flew. — Alexander Pope

Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, tuned the English tongue. — Harold Bloom

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

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

Oh let me live my own! and die so too!
("To live and die is all I have to do:")
Maintain a poet's dignity and ease,
And see what friends, and read what books I please. — Alexander Pope

You beat your Pate, and fancy Wit will come: Knock as you please, there's no body at home. — Alexander Pope

All other goods by Fortune's hands are given; A wife is the peculiar gift of heaven. — Alexander Pope

What bosom beast not in his country's cause? — Alexander Pope

Know, Nature's children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch, warmed a bear. While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" "See man for mine!" replies a pampered goose: And just as short of reason he must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all. — Alexander Pope

For when success a lover's toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends — Alexander Pope

Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection name:
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit
In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
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:
And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever IS, is RIGHT. — Alexander Pope

Trade it may help, society extend,
But lures the Pirate, ant corrupts the friend:
It raises armies in a nation's aid,
But bribes a senate, and the land's betray'd. — Alexander Pope

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

Music the fiercest grief can charm,
And fate's severest rage disarm. Music can soften pain to ease,
And make despair and madness please;
Our joys below it can improve,
And antedate the bliss above. — Alexander Pope

To err is human; to forgive divine.
Alexander Pope"
Excerpt From: Moriarty, Liane. "The Husband's Secret. — Alexander Pope

But why insult the poor, affront the great?'
A knave's a knave, to me, in every state. — Alexander Pope

Great oaks grow from little acorns. He has a green thumb. He has green fingers. He's sowing his wild oats. Here Ceres' gifts in waving prospect stand, And nodding tempt the joyful reaper's hand. — Alexander Pope

Horses (thou say'st) and asses men may try,
And ring suspected vessels ere they buy;
But wives, a random choice, untried they take;
They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake;
Then, nor till then, the veil's removed away,
And all the woman glares in open day. — Alexander Pope

Let Sporus tremble - "What? that thing of silk,
Sporus, that mere white curd of ass's milk?
Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel?
Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?"
Yet let me flap this Bug with gilded wings,
This painted Child of Dirt that stinks and stings;
Whose Buzz the Witty and the Fair annoys,
Yet Wit ne'er tastes, and Beauty ne'er enjoys, — Alexander Pope

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

A perfect woman's but a softer man. — Alexander Pope

Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings? — Alexander Pope

The flower's are gone when the Fruits appear to ripen. — Alexander Pope

O happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die. — Alexander Pope

Woman's at best a contradiction still. — Alexander Pope

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

In every work regard the writer's end, Since none can compass more than they intend. — Alexander Pope

For God's sake, madam, when you write to me, talk of yourself; there is nothing I so much desire to hear of; talk a great deal of yourself, that she who I always thought talked best may speak upon the best subject.
Alexander Pope to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu — Michael Kelahan

But see how oft ambition's aims are cross'd, and chiefs contend 'til all the prize is lost! — Alexander Pope

For wit and judgment often are at strife, Though meant each other's aid, like man and wife. — Alexander Pope

By music minds an equal temper know,
Nor swell too high, nor sink too low.
...
Warriors she fires with animated sounds.
Pours balm into the bleeding lover's wounds. — Alexander Pope

Trace Science, then, with Modesty thy guide,
First strip off all her equipage of Pride,
Deduct what is but Vanity or Dress,
Or Learning's Luxury or idleness,
Or tricks, to show the stretch of the human brain
Mere curious pleasure or ingenious pain. — Alexander Pope

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

Some men's wit is like a dark lantern, which serves their own turn and guides them their own way, but is never known (according to the Scripture phrase) either to shine forth before men, or to glorify their Father in heaven. — Alexander Pope

Such as are still observing upon others are like those who are always abroad at other men's houses, reforming everything there while their own runs to ruin. — 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

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.
Man, but for that no action could attend,
And, but for this, were active to no end:
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void,
Destroying others, by himself destroy'd. — Alexander Pope

The time shall come, when, free as seas or wind, Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind, Whole nations enter with each swelling tide, And seas but join the regions they divide; Earth's distant ends our glory shall behold, And the new world launch forth to seek the old. — 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

Virtue may choose the high or low degree,
'Tis just alike to virtue, and to me;
Dwell in a monk, or light upon a king,
She's still the same belov'd, contented thing. — Alexander Pope

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

... the distance is commonly very great between actual performances and speculative possibility. It is natural to suppose, that as much as has been done to-day may be done to-morrow; but on the morrow some difficulty emerges or some external impediment obstructs. Indolence, interruption, business, and pleasure; all take their turns of retardation; and every long work is lengthened by a thousand causes that can, and ten thousand that cannot, be recounted. Perhaps no extensive and multifarious performance was ever effected within the term originally fixed in the undertaker's mind. He that runs against Time, has an antagonist not subject to casualties.
From Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets series, published in 3 volumes between 1779 and 1781, on Alexander Pope — Samuel Johnson

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

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

Celia
Celia, we know, is sixty-five,
Yet Celia's face is seventeen;
Thus winter in her breast must live,
While summer in her face is seen.
How cruel Celia's fate, who hence
Our heart's devotion cannot try;
Too pretty for our reverence,
Too ancient for our gallantry! — Alexander Pope

Then say not man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault;. Say rather, man's as perfect as he ought. — Alexander Pope

Who know but He, whose hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar's mind. — Alexander Pope

And now, unveil'd, the Toilet stands display'd, Each silver Vase in mystic order laid. First, rob'd in white, the Nymph intent adores, With head uncover'd, the Cosmetic pow'rs. A heav'nly image in the glass appears, 125 To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears; Th' inferior Priestess, at her altar's side, Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride. Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and here — Alexander Pope

Nature to all things fixed the limits fit
And wisely curbed proud man's pretending wit.
As on the land while here the ocean gains.
In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains
Thus in the soul while memory prevails,
The solid power of understanding fails
Where beams of warm imagination play,
The memory's soft figures melt away
One science only will one genius fit,
So vast is art, so narrow human wit
Not only bounded to peculiar arts,
But oft in those confined to single parts
Like kings, we lose the conquests gained before,
By vain ambition still to make them more
Each might his several province well command,
Would all but stoop to what they understand. — Alexander Pope

The soul's calm sunshine and heartfelt joy. — Alexander Pope

An honest man's the noblest work of God — Alexander Pope

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

Live like yourself, was soon my lady's word, And lo! two puddings smok'd upon the board. — Alexander Pope

Order is Heaven's first law; and this confessed, some are, and must be, greater than the rest, more rich, more wise; but who infers from hence that such are happier, shocks all common sense. Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; bliss is the same in subject or in king. — Alexander Pope

I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian. — Alexander Pope

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

Satire's my weapon, but I'm too discreet to run amok and tilt at all I meet. — Alexander Pope

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, Let Newton be! and all was light. — Alexander Pope

Of little use, the man you may suppose,
Who says in verse what others say in prose;
Yet let me show a poet's of some weight,
And (though no soldier) useful to the state,
What will a child learn sooner than a song?
What better teach a foreigner the tongue?
What's long or short, each accent where to place
And speak in public with some sort of grace? — Alexander Pope

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

To be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Go wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence. — 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

Is there a parson much bemused in beer, a maudlin poetess, a rhyming peer, a clerk foredoom'd his father's soul to cross, who pens a stanza when he should engross? — Alexander Pope

Where beams of imagination play,
The memory's soft figures melt away. — Alexander Pope

All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace. — 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

Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust, Yet cry, if man's unhappy, God's unjust. — Alexander Pope

Do you find yourself making excuses when you do not perform? Shed the excuses and face reality. Excuses are the loser's way out. They will mar your credibility and stunt your personal growth. — Alexander Pope

Love, Hope, and Joy, fair pleasure's smiling train, Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of pain, These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd Make and maintain the balance of the mind. — Alexander Pope

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

Heaven forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend, Bids each on other for assistance call, Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. — Alexander Pope

I've always been a fan of comedy, and I understood from a young age that what makes most comedy work is the immediacy of first person experience. I'd spent a lot of time from 1995-1998 focusing almost exclusively on poetry, and it's an incredibly difficult form in which to achieve a sustained comic tone unless you're Alexander Pope. — Kevin Keck

Where London's column, pointing at the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies. — Alexander Pope

Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate,
Born where Heav'n influence scarce can penetrate.
In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like,
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike. — Alexander Pope

Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid. — 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

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

The difference is as great between The optics seeing as the objects seen. All manners take a tincture from our own; Or come discolor'd through out passions shown; Or fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies, Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes. — Alexander Pope

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

In adamantine chains shall Death be bound, And Hell's grim tyrant feel th' eternal wound. — Alexander Pope

The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line. — Alexander Pope

For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best, Welcome the coming, speed the going guest. — Alexander Pope

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

The dull flat falsehood serves for policy, and in the cunning, truth's itself a lie. — Alexander Pope