Alexander Pope Quotes

If I am right, Thy grace impartStill in the right to stay;If I am wrong, O, teach my heartTo find that better way!

~ Alexander Pope

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

~ 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

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

~ Alexander Pope

Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

~ Alexander Pope

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

~ Alexander Pope

Wise wretch! with pleasures too refined to please,With too much spirit to be e'er at ease,With too much quickness ever to be taught,With too much thinking to have common thought:You purchase pain with all that joy can give,And die of nothing but a rage to live.

~ Alexander Pope

A little learning is a dangerous thing.Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring;There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,and drinking largely sobers us again.

~ Alexander Pope

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,The proper study of mankind is Man.Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,A being darkly wise and rudely great:With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;In doubt his mind or body to prefer;Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;Alike in ignorance, his reason such,Whether he thinks too little or too much;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 hurl'd;The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,Correct old time, and regulate the sun;Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,And quitting sense call imitating God;As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,And turn their heads to imitate the sun.Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!

~ Alexander Pope

Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

~ Alexander Pope

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

~ Alexander Pope

True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'dWhat 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.

~ Alexander Pope

The Wit of Cheats, the Courage of a Whore,Are what ten thousand envy and adore:All, all look up, with reverential Awe,At crimes that 'scape, or triumph o'er the Law:While Truth, Worth, Wisdom, daily they decry-`'Nothing is sacred now but Villainy'- Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue I

~ Alexander Pope

Remembrance and reflection how allied!What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide!

~ Alexander Pope

Some who grow dull religious straight commenceAnd gain in morals what they lose in sense.

~ Alexander Pope

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

~ Alexander Pope

In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;All quit their sphere and rush into the skies.Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.

~ Alexander Pope

Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll,In pleasing memory of all he stole.

~ 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

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

~ Alexander Pope

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot.

~ Alexander Pope

Order is heaven's first law.

~ Alexander Pope

We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.

~ 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

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

~ Alexander Pope

What then remains, but well our power to use,And keep good humour still whate’er we lose?And trust me, dear, good humour can prevail,When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail.Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll;Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul

~ Alexander Pope

To err is human, to forgive, divine.

~ Alexander Pope

True wit is nature to advantage dressed;What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.

~ 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

What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.

~ Alexander Pope

chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd.

~ Alexander Pope

Words are like Leaves; and where they most abound,Much Fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found.

~ Alexander Pope

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

~ Alexander Pope

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

~ Alexander Pope

Trust not yourself; but your defects to know,Make use of ev'ry friend—and ev'ry foe.

~ Alexander Pope

Happy the man, whose wish and careA few paternal acres bound,Content to breathe his native airIn his own ground.

~ Alexander Pope

Those half-learn'd witlings, num'rous in our isle As half-form'd insects on the banks of Nile

~ Alexander Pope

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

~ Alexander Pope

Know then thyself; presume not God to scan,The proper study of mankind is Man.Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,A being darkly wise and rudely great:With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,And too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest;In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;In doubt his mind or body to prefer;Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err.Alike in ignorance, his reason such,Whether he thinks too little or too much.

~ Alexander Pope

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

~ Alexander Pope